Popular end to Dashel Drasher Stayers' Hurdle case - but how far is the panel's judgement to be trusted?

Oh well, it's a game of opinions, isn't it? The appeal panel has its, which is that Dashel Drasher did not interfere with Teahupoo despite appearing to carry him left on the approach to the final flight. In fairness, the weight of feeling on social media agrees.

The difficulty with such finely poised cases is so much hinges on how officials interpret the evidence of a race; all of us have the scars to show that divining meaning from a horserace can be a tricky business. Panel chairman James O'Mahony and his two colleagues ran an unimpeachably fair hearing and all appear to have strong knowledge of the game, but does that make them the right sort of experts to be throwing out definitive judgements about what happened at the Cheltenham Festival?

Having sat in on a number of hearings chaired by O'Mahony, I can say he is better at moving matters along than other chairs I have seen. While yesterday's hearing took three hours to conclude, it might easily have taken another hour or two with someone else presiding.