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Michael Cox

Follow @KemblaCoxy 
In Japan, Frenchman Christophe Lemaire was stood down from riding on what was meant to be his first day of riding as a full-time jockey and given a stunning 30-day suspension to boot.
For what, you ask?
I suppose it could come under the banner “careless tweeting” – and the two most costly retweets in the history of horse racing.
Here at home in Hong Kong, though, a race gets turned on its head – the first three favourites put out of play by interference – and everyone goes home unpunished.
Kim Kelly and company on the Jockey Club stewards’ panel have gone soft, I hear you say?
Or is this another exciting column about rules harmonisation?
Hardly, but let’s focus on careless tweeting, before we get on to a fascinating case of (apparently not) careless riding.

Social media hub Twitter is a wonderful unifying force for horse racing, but Lemaire is probably wishing he didn’t have an account after his loose thumbs – assuming it was from a smartphone – earned him a lengthy stint on the sidelines and got his new contract off to the worst possible start on Sunday.
It wasn’t what Lemaire posted online that got him in trouble, but when and where he did it. Japan Racing Association rules require jockeys to enter a lockdown facility before 9pm on the day before a meeting. They are prohibited from contacting any person outside, with the strict guidelines in place for the purposes of integrity.
Whether forcing jockeys into a pre-raceday slumber party at a remote training facility does anything good for integrity is a moot point. As one cynical old-timer quipped on Sunday: “They make all the jockeys stay together? That’s the last place you want them to be! Keep them separated so they can’t talk and ban them from contacting each other!”
Not only will Lemaire miss a month’s worth of rides in his new home, but his errant online escapades mean he will forgo the ride on Japanese Derby winner One And Only in the US$6 million Sheema Classic in Dubai.
Back to Sha Tin, and the decision to let the riders go unpunished following the ruckus that resulted in Master Kochanwong, Access Years and Lord Sinclair being pinballed back through the field.

Firstly, the incident marred the controversial Class One “all-weather track” classic, the very existence of which has been a point of consternation among the SCMP Racing Post team.
It’s no secret that racing editor Alan Aitken would rather eat dirt than watch racing on it, but we are still calling yesterday’s race a success despite the rough-and-tumble middle stages. A field of 11 and turnover topping HK$130 million is more than respectable (now excuse us while we cover our heads and wait for the editor’s rebuttal).
Another fun fact about Sunday’s race, which says more about the relative strength of Hong Kong’s stake money than anything else, was that the first prize of HK$1,254,000 is, by today’s exchange rates, only US$20,000 short of what Rich Tapestry flew halfway around the world to win in the Grade One Santa Anita Sprint Championship in October. The humble Class One handicap was one of the 10 richest dirt sprints in the world in the past 12 months.
Now, how did someone not get a stretch?
It is always hard for stewarding panels to resist the urge to make someone hang for obvious cases of interference that come under the broad heading of “racing incidents”.

The ruling was that Nash Rawiller was crossing to lead on Flagship Shine at a rather acute angle, the type of riding the chief stipe admitted later that he would discourage among apprentice jockeys, and the aggressive tactics did attract a warning. But Rawiller didn’t actually make contact with the horse on his inside, Zac Purton’s mount Super Jockey.
Super Jockey, however, had obviously watched some Australian simulcasts in his spare time and, like most horses, is probably scared of Rawiller, and rightfully so – he is the modern day enforcer.
Super Jockey took evasive action to avoid being collected as Flagship Shine came barrelling towards him. The net result is that Super Jockey hits Master Kochanwong, who ends up in the lap of Lord Sinclair, who in turn collects Access Years.
Stewards essentially ruled that Purton was in effect a passenger, and took all reasonable measures to avoid a collision.
So who was at fault? Apparently nobody, at least not anyone culpable enough to attract a suspension.
It would have been made much easier to find a culprit had Twitter been involved and either Rawiller or Purton decided to whip out a mobile and send a few tweets midrace – an act which would only be slightly sillier than what Lemaire did from the JRA jockeys’ compound.


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Talking  Points

A weekend when careless tweeting was worse than careless riding

Christophe Lemaire's start date in Japan is on ice after he retweeted two tweets while in lockdown. Photo: Kyodo 

The incident in which Master Kochanwong gets checked, pushing him back into the face of the grey Lord Sinclair, who in turn collected John Size-trained Access Years. Photo: HKJC

At the end of the dirt fiesta, Golden Shaheen-bound Super Jockey just holds off Tour De Force. Photo: Kenneth Chan

Christophe Lemaire's Twitter page. The two retweets have been removed. 

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In Japan, Frenchman Christophe Lemaire was stood down from riding on what was meant to be his first day of riding as a full-time jockey and given a stunning 30-day suspension to boot. For what, you ask?


Expresses the views, ideas and conclusions of the author. (Eg. Enough of Crazy Rich Asians, think of crazy poor Hongkongers.)


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Happy Lucky Dragon Win

Happy Lucky Dragon Win | A weekend when careless tweeting was worse than careless riding

In Japan, Frenchman Christophe Lemaire was stood down from riding on what was meant to be his first day of riding as a full-time jockey and given a stunning 30-day suspension to boot. For what, you ask?