'Not how I like to play sport' - drama as Knight Salute wins in stewards' room

Thursday: 4-Y-O Juvenile Hurdle, Aintree

A remarkable season for Milton Harris was rewarded with a remarkable first Grade 1 victory for the trainer, but the knockout blow he wanted to deliver himself on the racecourse instead came courtesy of the stewards at a windswept Aintree.

Harris, who had blasted past his previous best of 32 winners over jumps with more than 50 successes to his name this season, was overjoyed to be celebrating a first Grade 1 when the judge could not split his contender Knight Salute and favourite Pied Piper in a photo finish.

“It's emotional,” he said proudly and tearfully, standing next to his winner out on the course, yards away from where Davy Russell was berating himself for getting to the front too soon on Pied Piper to give Paddy Brennan on Knight Salute “a present”.

However, the stewards claxon intimated a new phase in the developing story of the race that had appeared to conclude with a thrilling dead-heat after Knight Salute and Pied Piper both gave their all in the closing stages of the Grade 1.

Brennan sought to gain no advantage in the stewards room, outlining how he believed it had been “a very fair result” while Russell continued his self admonishment in riding a race he felt had been all wrong on Pied Piper.

When the jockeys had left, the stewards elected to demote 10-11 favourite Pied Piper for causing interference at the final hurdle, where he jumped to his left into the path of 14-1 Knight Salute having travelled oh so well for Russell and trainer Gordon Elliott.

The judges could not separate the pair in the photo-finish

In contrast to his immediate elation after the race, Harris was more circumspect after victory was awarded solely to his horse and his owners, the Four Candles Partnership, with the success not coming in the manner he had really wanted.

“That doesn’t sit well with me, I don’t see any benefit to that,” he said. “It’s a matter for the stewards but I feel for Gordon. It’s not the way I like to play sport.

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

“I don’t play sport for it to be like that, I play to be competitive – get me in a boxing ring we’ll have a fight and whoever wins, wins so I don’t like that. But there we are, that’s the rules. I feel sorry for the second because we had a good battle and it’s a shame to see somebody demoted.”

Knight Salute had gone into the Cheltenham Festival as one of the leading British contenders for the Triumph Hurdle after five wins on the spin, including the Grade 2 Adonis Hurdle at Kempton, but came up short behind Vauban.

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

The reversal led Brennan to believe he was up against it at Aintree, and said: “I didn’t think it was possible today but it didn’t work out at Cheltenham and I looked after him.”

Russell had initially been relieved to get a dead-heat with Pied Piper having said he wanted to give himself “a kick up the backside” for the ride he had given the horse, and Gordon Elliott shrugged off the reversal in the stewards room as part and parcel of racing.

“That's the game we're in and we'll keep our heads up and move to the next one," he said.

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