Mangan respects BHA ruling after dream is crushed on 'awful day'

Gina Mangan was trying to focus on the positives on Thursday after learning her Derby dream had been dashed when the BHA stepped in to rule she was too inexperienced to ride rank outsider Diore Lia in the Classic.

Mangan, a 25-year-old 7lb claiming apprentice who has ridden one winner and never ridden at Epsom, had been chosen by owner-breeder Richard Aylward to ride the 1,000-1 chance after Michelle Payne was unavailable.

BHA director of regulation Jamie Stier said on Sunday there was "nothing in the rules to prevent Gina taking the ride", but on Wednesday the BHA invoked little-known rule 83 giving the authority discretion not to accept the rider booking in the best interests of participants.

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The BHA addresses our questions surrounding Gina Mangan decision

Was the BHA right to stop Mangan from riding in the Derby?

Mangan was riding at Kempton, where a four-day careless riding ban compounded her disappointment, when the news broke.

"Yesterday was an awful day," she said. "I'm a bit down in the dumps today but I will be all right in time.

"I can't help but feel disheartened, but I respect the BHA's decision. It's their call at the end of the day. I will be forever thankful to Mary Todd, the owner, for giving me the opportunity to ride the horse.

"The great thing about horseracing is there is always the next day. There are many more horseraces and they are the positives to take."

Mangan, who works for Diore Lia's trainer John Jenkins, had been determined to make the most of her opportunity in the big-race spotlight but the BHA ruled she was not equipped with the experience to handle an occasion and challenge like riding in the Derby.

She said: "I had done a live radio interview for an Irish radio station. I'd had a lot of well wishes and I was quite positive and relaxed and prepared going into Saturday. It's a build-you-up-to-knock-you-down kind of feeling.

"It's not going to be detrimental to my career. I will still carry on with what I was doing prior to the opportunity."

'Enormous sympathy for Gina'

Mangan's plight earned sympathy from the Professional Jockeys Association whose chief executive Paul Struthers said the BHA had made the right decision.

"We have enormous sympathy for Gina and the position she has found herself in, having been thrust into the spotlight this week," he said. "Yet we also recognise that there were concerns raised by other PJA members about such an inexperienced jockey, with no previous experience of riding at Epsom, taking the mount on an outclassed horse in the biggest, arguably most important, Flat race of the year.

"The BHA were in an unenviable position and in the circumstances we believe they have taken the right decision, albeit in hindsight it would have been far preferable not to have given Gina the public green light to ride earlier in the week."