The Appeal Process
Last month’s dead-heat finish at Kempton, involving just two strides and a split-second decision, was dissected thoroughly before the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) disciplinary panel on Tuesday. Following nearly three hours of heated discussion, jockey Callum Shepherd successfully had his 18-day suspension lifted after appealing the decision, which originally stemmed from accusations that he had failed to ride out to the finish line.
Defence and Testimony
Shepherd had been penalised for his performance on Thorntonledale Max in a seven-furlong handicap at Kempton on August 21. The horse was leading just two strides from the finish, but Shepherd was noticeably out of his saddle compared to his rivals in the final moments. In the race’s dying seconds, his mount was caught by Flavour Maker, the race favourite. Had Thorntonledale Max crossed the line even marginally ahead, the need for Tuesday’s hearing would have been avoided altogether. However, the stewards at Kempton concluded that Shepherd had not fully ridden to the line, which, in their view, had cost him the outright victory, forcing a shared result instead.
At the hearing, Shepherd was represented by seasoned solicitor Rory Mac Neice, a veteran of countless cases like this. However, it was Shepherd’s own testimony during cross-examination by Louis Weston, a top sports lawyer representing the BHA, that likely tipped the scales in his favour. Weston contended that Shepherd had stood up in the irons just before the finish, thus throwing away his lead. But Shepherd maintained that while he did become unbalanced in the last couple of strides, the horse’s speed and the final outcome were not compromised.
Shepherd reflected on the race’s closing moments, admitting, “The first four hits with the whip were me, definitely. After that, it didn’t look like my usual style at all. I lost my rhythm and was bouncing in the saddle.”
He went on to explain, “It was awful. I looked like a mess—completely different from the first part of the race. My rhythm was gone, my knees were all over the place, and it’s embarrassing to watch. But what’s important is that the horse never lost momentum. Even though my riding style fell apart in those final strides, it didn’t slow the horse down.”
When Weston pressed him further, suggesting that Shepherd had indeed stood up in the irons as he neared the line, the jockey disagreed. “No, I wouldn’t say that. My legs weren’t straight; I was just rising up slightly.”
Shepherd also stated that while he believed he had the race in hand, he had ridden out completely to the finish. “There wasn’t a single part of me that stopped riding to the line. I couldn’t have used the whip again without breaking the rules.”
He acknowledged that his performance at the finish wasn’t visually appealing, saying, “It’s embarrassing, it looks terrible, but it didn’t take away any of the horse’s momentum.”
The Panel’s Decision and Similar Incidents
In delivering the panel’s decision to uphold Shepherd’s appeal, the panel’s chair, HH James O’Mahony, remarked that while there had been a visible loss of rhythm and imbalance in Shepherd’s riding during the closing moments, it did not appear to affect the horse’s pace. He highlighted, “There was no visible loss of momentum for the horse, and we want to clarify that this decision applies solely to the specifics of this case. It doesn’t establish any precedent for future incidents of this nature.”
The contentious finish at Kempton came on the heels of another disputed race at Windsor just two days earlier, where jockey James Doyle was narrowly beaten aboard No Retreat, a heavily favoured horse. Doyle was accused of ceasing to ride out fully before the line, but he argued that No Retreat had shifted unexpectedly, causing him to become unbalanced. In that case, the stewards accepted Doyle’s explanation.
The BHA’s decision in Shepherd’s case brings closure to a complex, closely scrutinised event, but it also underscores the ongoing debates surrounding jockey performances and their influence on race outcomes.