Stewards may be given some discretion under BHA rules rewrite

Allowing stewards a degree of discretion could be considered as part of the rules rewrite being undertaken by the BHA, which on Friday was urged to use "common sense" in situations like those that led to a race being declared void at Chelmsford on Thursday.

The BHA said the "black and white" rules left raceday officials no choice but to declare a 6f handicap void after the advanced flag operator mistakenly raised a recall flag and initiated the stop-race procedure, even though the race was completed with the jockeys on the seven runners unaware of the flag signal.

In the wake of the error, by a racecourse employee, on a day when Storm Doris had put the fixture in jeopardy, Chelmsford owner Fred Done has pledged to pay all the prize-money – the race had a first prize of £6,469 and was 'won' by Nautical Haven – out of his own pocket.

Fred Done: Chelmsford's owner has elected to pay out the prize-money for the void race from his own pocketCredit: Whitaker Edward

According to the BHA, voiding the race or ordering a restart, had the race been stopped, were the only options once the recall flag had been raised, but the AFO did not complete the procedure by waving the flag and blowing a whistle. No action was taken against the seven riders, nor will any runner be reassessed by the handicapper.

BHA head of media Robin Mounsey said: "The rules as drafted are absolutely clear that the race must be stopped once the stop-race procedure is initiated.

"This is to ensure the rules are as straightforward as possible, consistently applied and that jockeys are aware that as soon as the stop-race flag is waved they must always pull up, with no exceptions.

"It's regrettable that here the AFO, having raised the stop-race flag, did not complete the procedure and that racing continued. Incidents like this are incredibly rare.

"However, the only actions open to the stewards once the stop-race procedure has been initiated are to order a restart – assuming racing stopped – or void the race.

'There has to be common sense'

“We're currently engaged on a project to rewrite the rules of racing, and one of the areas under consideration is the degree of discretion given to the stewards in certain circumstances.”

Nautical Haven was having his first start for a syndicate run by Nick Bradley, who was in Dubai.

Bradley said on Friday: "When they wrote the rule book they didn't consider hurricane winds. I was watching the video and the lady with the flag had her hair in her face.

"She's waved it for a second, then put it down. All the jockeys said they didn't see it, so there has to be a degree of common sense. The rule book should state the race is void if the flag is waved unless there are extenuating circumstances, which yesterday there obviously were."

One of Nautical Haven's owners had flown in from Malaga in Spain for the race, and racecourse chairman Joe Scanlon said on Friday: "Fred said that having read the comments in the Racing Post this morning, and particularly the lengths one of the owners went to to see his horse run at our racetrack, he would like to pay the prize-money as a goodwill gesture to all concerned as if the race hadn't been declared void.

"We're not apportioning any blame, it's purely a goodwill gesture on Fred's part."