'I don't think it affected my finishing position' - how the inquiry played out

Knight Salute was handed outright victory in the Grade 1 Jewson Anniversary 4-y-o Juvenile Hurdle at Aintree on Thursday in the stewards' room but both his trainer and jockey seemed unconvinced the stewards had reached the correct decision.

After a barnstorming finish, the judge could not split Knight Salute and Pied Piper but following an inquiry, the stewards deemed that interference between the pair at the last hurdle had cost Knight Salute outright victory.

Given evidence in the televised stewards' inquiry, Knight Salute's rider Paddy Brennan told the panel that the interference had not altered the result but the stewards ultimately disagreed and gave Brennan and Knight Salute the race.

Jewson Anniversary 4-y-o Juvenile Hurdle full result and race replay

"To be honest, I didn't feel a lot. Davy [Russell] has obviously got to the front and he's had a look at the last and my horse has reacted to that and jumped to the inside," Brennan told the stewards. "I was always happy to go for that rail, so I don't think it affected my finishing position to be honest."

He continued: "It was cat and mouse. I didn't want to help Davy Russell, I wanted to be using him as a line and then from the last I was always going to make a manoeuvre to get my run. So whether he jumped left or right, I was always going to be happy to stay behind him until then."

Davy Russell, rider of Pied Piper, blamed himself for being in front far too soon and told the stewards his horse was idling on the run-in.

Knight Salute (right) and Pied Piper cross the line togetherCredit: Edward Whitaker

He said: "I completely rode the horse incorrectly myself. I was there way too soon and he's idled in the past. I just travelled so well and was going so easy and got there and just idled. He did it the whole way.

"I know the horse – he's done it in the past, he's done it at Punchestown when he won, he idled and ran around in front, and he's done it again there. I've tried to keep him straight and I didn't want to cause interference, nor did I know I was causing interference.

"With such a long straight here, he's done it in the past – he did it in his first run at Punchestown and ran around in front and I knew myself riding the race, this was completely wrong what I was doing [and] that he was going to idle in front but my hands were tied and tipped away at the race.

"I would have preferred to have been doing what Paddy was doing and then I would have been at way more of an advantage. I was at a disadvantage the way it was."

'What a horserace'

Asked by the BHA's head of stewarding Shaun Parker if he had felt there had been any momentum lost with what had taken place at the last hurdle, Brennan said: "Absolutely none. When I jumped the last, that's when I was thinking, right, I need to go for this.

"Whether Davy jumped left or right, my momentum wasn't going to matter, because when I got over that last hurdle, that's when I was going to play my cards and everything worked perfectly for me and I think it's a very fair result and what a horserace."

On the "unanimous" decision the stewards reached and the fact it appeared to go against what Brennan had told them, Parker said: "I think what we need to understand is that in any inquiry we hold the parties in terms of natural justice have an opportunity of putting their case to the stewards.

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"The verbal evidence given by the riders is only part of the evidence that we will consider in any given hearing, and when we weigh up the verbal evidence given to us to what we're seeing on the patrol videos, we then have to make a balanced decision hearing both parts of that evidence.

"In this particular case the stewards took the view that Mr Brennan's mount was obviously finishing a lot better than Mr Russell's mount and, having jumped the last, if you look at the line that Mr Brennan's mount had come to take the jump in, and with Mr Russell's mount having jumped left and impeding him and taking him off his line, that that loss of ground to the left when he was taken off his intended line was enough to convince us that he improved his position based on the fact it was a dead-heat and a little bit of interference can have a material effect on the result.

"On that basis we came to our decision that the ground he was carried off his line, having jumped the last, made up for the fact that there was no difference between them at the line in terms of the dead-heat."

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