The Racing Horse does not take pleasure in awarding amateur jockey Theo Gillard the 'Idiot Of The Week' award after he picked up a 28-day suspension for continuing to ride an exhausted horse, who then fell at the last at Ludlow!

Blackadder took ten minutes to rise after his fall...

Gillard was riding 250-1 chance Blackadder in the opening juvenile hurdle and was out of contention when the horse fell heavily at the final flight. A post-race examination revealed no abnormalities, but it did take the horse ten minutes to rise to his feet following the fall.

Rule (D) 45.3

Full credit to stipendiary steward Simon Cowley who told us: "We felt the horse should clearly have been pulled up a long way before it fell. The penalty reflected the seriousness of the offence in the view of the stewards." The ruling found Gillard was in breach of Rule (D) 45.3 and suspended him for 28 days, on dates to be notified by the British Horseracing Authority.

Hopefully it will not happen again - Theo Gillard

An apparently contrite Gillard accepted the stewards' verdict and said: "Hopefully it will not happen again as I have learned my lesson. In future I will definitely be pulling up a tired horse." It is hard to understand or accept what 'learned my lesson' meant in this context? We neither accept the words hopefully, amateur nor do we accept it was Gillard's age (18) or just 15th jumps ride under rules. Presumably he knows what the difference is between a fresh horse and a knackered one? It is worth pointing out this amateur jockey has ridden on the Flat both on Turf and the AW as well as 15 rides over jumps. He has even rode a winner. Apart from riding for trainer Mark Gillard he is also attached to the Donald McCain yard so he must have something in the locker?

Ultimately Gillard brought our sport into disrepute!

Ultimately his mount Blackadder is just a 4yo who has never won a race and racing on ground that would be hard work for a seasoned racer and was also its first run over obstacles. Gillard's actions were a disgrace and brought the sport into disrepute, it is this type of thing that needs to be eradicated completely from the game and we advocate a year ban given the ride! What would have been said if the horse had died? What would the owner Richard Hambleton have thought? If the horse was ours he would never ride it again. What has the ride done for the horse Blackadder - not a lot we would suggest, it will take months just to recover!

The Racing Post comments said...

The Racing Post post-race comments were ‘pulled hard, led, tended to jump right, mistake 1st, headed approaching 5th, weakened rapidly, tailed off when fell heavily last, winded (op 200/1).’ The winner of the race jockey Richard Johnson confirmed: “The ground is very hard work and it took some getting for a young horse.”

We have contacted trainer Mark Gillard to give him a right of reply, we will post any news here...

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