BHA admits Ffos Las winner Pilgrims King should not have been allowed to race in a tongue strap

The BHA has admitted a mistake was made when Pilgrims King was allowed to race in a tongue strap that was not declared at Ffos Las on Tuesday.

Peter Bowen was fined £140 for declaring cheekpieces in error but he was allowed to change that to a tongue strap, which his eight-year-old wore when winning the novice handicap chase.

The horse had worn a tongue strap in each of his previous 12 outings, and 15 of his last 17, but had been below his best in the two races he had run without the equipment during that sequence.

A BHA spokesman said on Wednesday: “As per the stewards’ report for the 3.05 at Ffos Las on Tuesday, Peter Bowen was fined £140 for declaring cheekpieces in error on his runner Pilgrims King. A tongue strap was substituted. This was permitted in error and the BHA apologises to those affected.

“As the relevant rule states (Paragraph 7 of the Equipment Code), a trainer may substitute headgear that has been declared for another piece of headgear (including blinkers, cheekpieces, eye covers, eye shields, hoods and visors) if they make a request to the BHA to do so, as long as the request is received prior to weighing out and the appropriate financial penalty is paid. However, a tongue strap is not permitted to be substituted and as such the rule was incorrectly applied.

“As is standard in such situations, we will now take steps to look into the incident internally and assess what improvements can be made to processes, which will include how such equipment changes are communicated.”

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