Nigel Hawke loses appeal against Newton Abbot non-trier charges

Nigel Hawke has lost his appeal against charges of schooling and conditioning on a racecourse following the seventh-place finish of his Watchoutitscookie at Newton Abbot last month.

The trainer was fined £3,000 and his runner handed a 40-day race suspension after the 2m1f novice hurdle on September 26, where the gelding finished 43 lengths behind winner Sea The Clouds.

Jockey Tom Buckley was suspended for 14 days for failing to make an effort to obtain the best possible placing but chose not to appeal his ban, while responsibility fell on the trainer for failing to give clear instructions before the race.

Hawke, who represented himself during the two-hour hearing, was unable to convince the appeal panel on Thursday that his runner had proved difficult for Buckley to handle on the day, with appeal chairman James O'Mahony voicing "considerable scepticism" over Hawke's reasoning of the horse hanging as a factor in Watchoutitscookie's performance.

Hawke admitted error in his handling of the performance on the day, which saw both trainer and jockey fail to report to officials after the race, but felt his jockey had ridden "as best he could on a horse that was very difficult to ride at the time".

The trainer said: "I could have gotten Tom in trouble and said he didn't do what I told him to do, but I think he genuinely was having difficulty riding that horse – is it evident he is hanging.

"I have great faith in the jockey, he didn't do exactly what I wanted then and there's a reason for it because he was unhappy with the horse.

"We do not school horses in public and I find that as a great insult to a man like myself who has been in the game for so long. I find that very hard to take."

'The horse is better than he was made to look'

BHA barrister Charlotte Davison insisted the breach in rules was "quite clearly" deliberate and pressed Hawke's failure to raise issue with the horse's performance to the stewards on the day, which Hawke admitted was a "mistake" on both his and the jockey's part.

She also countered claims the horse trotted up unsound the following morning by indicating no signs of lameness during a post-race vet examination.

She said: "It doesn't matter what your opposition is, it doesn't matter what type of race it is, the obligation on the trainer to run a horse on its merits remains exactly the same.

"The only reason a 3lb claimer reliant on Mr Hawke for the vast majority of his rides would have ridden the way he did was because his instructions weren't clear enough, therefore Mr Hawke cannot satisfy the burden upon him to prove that he gave the necessary instructions and they weren't complied with."

In delivering his ruling, O'Mahony said: "The purpose of the rule is about public confidence in racing, that the race is run strictly on their merits, whether the horse is 200-1 against or an odds-on favourite.

"The BHA rightly criticised the riding of the jockey in those circumstances and the conviction, unappealed, is in our judgement perfectly correct.

"We find Mr Hawke is in breach of the rules and has failed in this appeal. He certainly did not give clear enough instructions as he was bound to do. It was clear to us the horse is better than he was made to look in that race and he was doing his best work at the end."

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