Haskoy (GB) (Golden Horn {GB}), the filly that crossed the wire second in the G1 Cazoo St Leger and was demoted to fourth for inference, will remain in that position after connections lost their appeal on Tuesday.
The Juddmonte homebred, with Frankie Dettori in the irons, was deemed to have caused interference to Giavellotto (Ire) (Mastercraftsman {Ire}) of a sufficient nature to place her behind that Marco Botti-trained colt, the raceday stewards determined.
During the appeal hearing, two incidents were looked into by the independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority–an incident between the three- and two-furlong poles where the Ralph Beckett-trained filly drifted towards the inside rail, and again later on once jockey Neil Callan had re-balanced Giavellotto and were closing once again. The race was won by Eldar Eldarov (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}), with New London (Ire) (Dubawi {Ire}) promoted to second, Giavellotto third and Haskoy fourth.
Callan said, “About two and a half out I started to make my move and I noticed Mr. Dettori have a glance over his shoulder so I gave him a shout to tell him I was there. I got carried left and ran out of room.
“I lost momentum and had to pick my horse back up after further interference on my outside and then Mr. Dettori drifted back out so I went for the rail again, but half a furlong from home Mr. Dettori switched his whip and his filly leaned in on me again which cost me more ground.”
“I would say that up to half a furlong from home I was giving it 100% and then when the winner passed me half a furlong out and I knew I had the others beat, I was riding at 80%,” said Dettori, who would subsequently serve a five-day suspension for the ride.
“I can't judge Mr. Callan's ride, only my own, but I would disagree that Giavellotto passed me after the line so that means he would otherwise have beaten me. I took the revs off inside the last half furlong because I couldn't win.”
Panel chair Timothy Charlton KC said during the closing statements, “There was considerable interference just before and just after the two-furlong marker which cost Giavellotto a lot of distance and momentum.
“Without that he would have had a traffic-free run to the line and would have begun a serious challenge at that point. Instead, Mr. Callan had to take back sharply to avoid clipping heels which took him into more trouble with Danny Tudhope's mount [French Claim (Fr) (French Fifteen {Fr})] which compounded the loss of balance and momentum suffered from when Haskoy crossed in front of him.
“When Giavellotto returned to the rail he again suffered interference when Haskoy squeezed him up.
“The panel fully recognises the peril of an arithmetical approach to these sort of cases, especially when the interference is so far out, but despite those uncertainties the panel was persuaded that Haskoy's interference prevented Giavellotto from finishing ahead of Haskoy.
“It is the panel's view the deposit should be returned [to the connections of Haskoy] as perfectly respectable arguments were put to us.”
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