'A stupid mistake' - Bromley apologises after Sandown error throws away win

Conditional jockey Ben Bromley held his hands up and apologised after becoming the latest jockey to ride to the wrong winning post at Sandown – a mistake that resulted in the rider getting banned for a total of 32 days.

Seven pound claimer Bromley was in front at the first post, used for the chase course which comes around the famous pond and approaches the finish line at a different angle, in the 2m7½f handicap hurdle aboard the Nicky Henderson-trained Call Me Lord – and stood up in his irons to celebrate.

But the hurdles track at Sandown uses the second winning post which, due to the angle at which the two courses meet the finish line, is located roughly a further 13 metres up the Sandown hill.

By that point he had been passed by amateur David Maxwell aboard Dolphin Square, getting the better of the Bromley-ridden 4-1 shot by a nose in a photo-finish, with Wilde About Oscar a short-head back in third.

Bromley was suspended for 28 days by the stewards for "failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best possible placing on a horse that would have finished first" and to rub salt in the wound picked up a further four days "for using his whip above permitted level from having jumped the second-last".

"I rode to the wrong winning line, it's a stupid mistake and won't happen again," said the upset rider.

Henderson, whose Jonbon won at Sandown shortly after the Call Me Lord incident and Chantry House unseated at Aintree, added: "It's been up and down.

"Call Me Lord was frustrating, even more frustrating was Chantry House as I wanted to see him today and he had a blip early on. Call Me Lord was a wonderful second and it's happened before, I feel very sorry for Ben."

The rider's father Anthony Bromley, a prominent bloodstock agent and racing manager to Call Me Lord's owners Simon Munir and Isaac Souede, offered a shrug of the shoulders and said: "He won't be the last to do it."

Bookmaker Paddy Power took the decision to refund win singles on Call Me Lord as free bets as a consolation for punters impacted by the incident.

It is not the first time the use of two winning posts at Sandown has caused confusion. In April 2019, an incorrect result was called in the EBF Final after the judge based his decision on a photo-finish taken at the wrong winning post.

One For Rosie was mistakenly declared the winner by a neck but after a lengthy delay, the result was revised and Third Wind was called the winner before the weighed-in signal, which is the official sign that bets can be settled.

Watch: Ben Bromley's error hands win to Dolphin Square

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