Silvestre De Sousa: dismayed by the Sandown stewards' original decision
PICTURE: Mark Cranham (racingpost.com/photos)De Sousa one-bay ban overturned on appeal
SILVESTRE DE SOUSA on Thursday successfully appealed the one-day ban he received on Saturday for failing to obtain the best possible placing on a mount he had ridden at Sandown.
He was hit by a one-day suspension for his Atalanta Stakes ride on Falls Of Lora, who finished eighth but whom the judges ruled could have finished sixth had De Sousa ridden out the finish.
De Sousa was incensed by the ban, however, arguing that he had met serious interference in the closing stages and had been forced to rebalance his mount.
At his appeal in London on Thursday the BHA offered no positive evidence to back up the one-day ban and, after watching replays of the race from several angles, the disciplinary panel agreed with De Sousa and quashed the Sandown stewards' original suspension.
De Sousa said: "I was going to take it on the chin, but I felt it really wasn't right."
In other disciplinary panel business conducted on Thursday, William Carson was banned for 17 days for careless riding at Lingfield on August 30. The ban, consisting three days for careless riding and 14 under the BHA's totting up procedure, runs from September 14 to September 26, with four days deferred until December 27.
Fergus Sweeney's appeal against a three-day ban for careless riding received at Wolverhampton on August 31 was dismissed and the September 14 to September 17 ban confirmed.
Read Bruce Jackson's colour report on Thursday's disciplinary panel proceedings in Friday's Racing Post
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