Jockeys' solicitor says racing should work together to improve flag procedures

Solicitor Rory Mac Neice believes the time has come for the sport to work together to improve stop-race procedures in the aftermath of the void London National at Sandown this month.

Mac Neice was on Tuesday successful in overturning the ten-day bans incurred by the seven jockeys who failed to pull up in the marathon chase after allegedly ignoring a yellow stop-race flag.

The former jump jockey believes there is no better moment for stakeholders to take a collegiate approach in order to improve the safety of equine and human participants in a similar scenario.

Seven Sandown jockeys successful in appeals

Mac Neice said: “The key now is for the industry – riders, trainers, the BHA and racecourses – to work together to see what alterations can be made to the current stop-race procedures to make it more robust.

“It’s obvious that stopping a race is going to be difficult for the racecourse and riders and my sense is the use of more flags is something that should be looked at quickly as a low-tech solution.

“It’s in everyone’s interests to work together to find a better fix for stop-race procedures and it’s something that should be open to be revisited after an instance.

"This opportunity should be seized for the sport to work together."

Doing Fine (right): passed the post in frontCredit: Mark Cranham / Getty Images

Harry Skelton, Jamie Moore, Daryl Jacob, Adam Wedge, Stan Sheppard, James Davies and Philip Donovan were the riders spared suspensions over the festive period following the successful appeal and Mac Neice felt it was wrong for the riders to be blamed for the incident.

He added: “The evidence of a very experienced group of riders, many that have been riding for well over 15 years, was key to the successful appeal. They were universal in that given they know what a yellow flag meant there would have been no reason to continue, hence they had not seen the flag.

“There’s no doubt Sandown did the very best they could in what were difficult circumstances, as did the riders, but it was the riders that had been blamed for what happened and that process of blame on a safety-focused aspect of the sport doesn’t really help.

"All that does is pulls the parties apart rather than bring them together."

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