Havlin Wins Appeal

Rab Havlin has won his appeal against a 10-day ban for careless riding after an incident at Yarmouth on July 22.

Yarmouth stewards deemed that Havlin had failed to take sufficient action to prevent the John Gosden-trained Swift Verdict (GB) (Dubawi {Ire}) from shifting left and causing a chain reaction that affected Dreaming Blue (GB) (Showcasing {GB}), ridden by Tom Marquand, and My Vision (GB) (Showcasing {GB}) under Harry Bentley. Swift Verdict, the €1.4-million first foal out of Classic winner Just The Judge (Ire) (Lawman {Fr}), eventually finished third with Dreaming Blue in sixth and My Vision ninth.

Havlin reflected, “On the day it was bad. No one is taking away the interference was significant. The two lads [Marquand and Bentley] were lucky to stand up.

“From my point of view there was little I could do. They said it was under a right-hand drive. It actually took two seconds for the whole thing to happen. We looked at it for three hours at the inquiry this morning and obviously I'm glad at the outcome. When you slowed it down, I literally had half a second to get him off, so who can do that in half a second? I know the stewards on the day have got a tough job because they haven't got time to go over it like they could in London.

“I don't normally appeal. I think it's the second appeal in my career, but I just felt I thought people looked at the interference and saw two horses nearly coming down and thinking somebody must have done something bad for that to happen. But as even Tom said himself, the riding offence that caused it was minimal.”