Oisin Murphy to miss St Leger meeting after opting against appeal

Horse Racing

Graham Clark
August 28, 2020 3:38 pm

Champion jockey picked up seven-day suspension for careless riding at Ayr on Monday.

Oisin Murphy will miss the Pertemps St Leger Festival at Doncaster after deciding not to appeal against a seven-day suspension.

The champion jockey was banned from September 7 to 13 inclusive after the Ayr stewards found him guilty of careless riding aboard winner Tiritomba in Monday’s Shadwell Stud Maiden Stakes.

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The suspension means he will be sidelined for the Doncaster fixture, which runs September 9-12, but Murphy felt he would have been unlikely to succeed in having his penalty quashed or reduced by the British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel.

He said: “It is going to be difficult to sit a week out, but if the stewards on the day feel I deserve to get a week’s suspension, it is likely the BHA appeal panel will agree with them.

“I don’t want to waste anyone else’s time or my own time by sitting there on a Zoom call for two and a half hours. Although it is very tough to take, I’ve just got to accept it.”

Tiritomba appeared to drift across second-placed Ricksen in the finish, with the Ayr stewards deciding Murphy had “allowed his mount to drift left for a considerable time without sufficient correction causing (Ricksen’s rider Paul) Mulrennan to take a significant check and clip heels”.

Murphy – who is well clear of Tom Marquand in the race for this year’s riders’ championship – felt he had done his best in the circumstances, adding: “The horse hung fire and I didn’t pick my stick up and I never took my hands off the reins.

“There is actually a photo going past the line where it is clearly obvious that the bit has come through his mouth. I don’t have wing mirrors and there was no shout.

“You see me riding every day and I don’t want to get any suspensions.”