Five jockeys BANNED after horse runs blindfolded through rail in scary incident

A race had to be declared void after a dramatic incident at the start on Monday in which five jockeys received hefty bans. The second race on the evening card at Windsor was a 5f handicap for apprentice jockeys featuring a field of seven.

But there was trouble at the starting stalls when the Martin Dunne-trained Master Zack, who had been blindfolded to go into the gate, reared up just before the the gates opened. Jockey Ryan Kavanagh managed to stay in the stalls without his mount who exited with the blindfold still fixed over his head.

Unable to see where he was going, he veered to his right and crashed through the plastic running rail before he was eventually caught. He was reported to be uninjured. One other runner Beaumadier was also left in the stalls, losing many lengths once he started, with the rest of the field completing the race with Cabeza De Llave finishing first past the post.

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Describing the incident, Sky Sports Racing presenter Alex Hammond said: “This is what happened. He’s got his hand on the hood as the horse goes up and then the horse gets stuck in the gates and Beaumadier doesn’t jump either.”

She went on: “The starter was waving the flag but our eye was taken by Master Zack and him veering through the plastic rails there. The starter definitely was waving the flag there.”

Replays showed the starter in the background waving the yellow flag after the runners left the stalls, while a reverse angle revealed an assistant was stood in the middle of the track a furlong away waving a flag at the oncoming field to indicate a false start.

However the riders of the remaining runners appeared to take no notice and continued to ride out to the line.

Jockey Tommie Jakes, who finished first past the post, told Sky Sports Racing he saw no signal to stop before he headed into a stewards inquiry.

“I wouldn’t have seen the flag," he said. "I don’t know why it would have been a false start anyway. I know the horse pulled up just as I left the gates and that was it. I didn’t see any flags waving down the track.”

However the stewards punished Jakes and four others, Jack Doughty, Jack Dace, Taryn Langley and Alec Volkhansky with ten day suspensions.

Chief steward Richard Westropp told Sky Sports Racing: "Stall two, the door flapped back into his path as the start was activated. On the basis of that the starter called a false start. His flag went up and was raised as it should be. All the horses ran. You can see from stall four that the horse got loose and went through the rails.

"The recall man was stood right in the middle of the track. He raised his flag and blew his whistle so procedures were followed absolutely to the tee.

"None of the jockeys tell us that they saw the recall flag or hear the whistle bar Mr Whiteley on horse number two which activated the false start in the first place. He made every effort to pull his horse up. The others rode a finish."

"All the jockeys bar Conor Whiteley and Ryan Kavanagh, whose horse went lose and went into the rails, have been banned. It's a ten day mandatory ban for failing to obey the recall flag."