The Horse Racing Division has taken note of a false and defamatory article on page 3 of Turf Magazine (November 26 and 27, 2022), with the headline ” Trippi’s Express n’aurait-il pas dû être déclaré non-partant ?”.
This article misleads readers of Turf Magazine and racegoers in general into believing that the Horse Racing Division’s ‘Clerk of the Scales’ misreported to the Racing Stewards the right handicap of jockey Andre Luiz Da Silva on his return at the weigh-in, after his win on Trippi’s Express in the People’s Turf PLC 2022 Football World Cup race 5 of the 34th Meeting, run at People’s Turf Plc on Saturday November 19, 2022.
The scale showed 60.5 kg, in the photo shown in the article (that part of the article is correct), which is 1.5 kg over the 59 kg carded weight for Trippi’s Express. Rule 199 of the Rules of Racing quoted in the article clearly refers to underweight and not overweight as stated in the Turf Magazines article.
199. Where a jockey cannot draw the weight at which he weighed out, the Clerk of the Scales shall allow him 0.5 kilogram. If he cannot then draw the weight, his horse, if the winner of the race, shall be declared a non-starter and, unless he can satisfy the Stipendiary Stewards that such underweight was due to circumstances beyond his control, he shall be guilty of a contravention of these Rules and shall be liable to any of the penalties provided for in Rule 11(d). If the horse is not a winner, it will be disqualified.
Rule of Racing 198 allows a jockey to have an overweight of 1 kg after a race.
198. Where after a race a jockey weighs in at more than 1 kilogram over the weight at which he weighed out: –
(a) the jockey shall, unless he can satisfy the Stipendiary Stewards that such overweight was due to circumstances outside his control, be guilty of a contravention of these Rules and shall be liable to any of the penalties provided for in Rule 11(d); and
(b) the placing of the horse in the race shall be unaffected.
But what Turf Magazine does not say is that under Rule of Racing 151(f) (see below) all jockeys are allowed an extra 1 kg, which is the maximum weight allowed for the compulsory wearing of an international standard safety vest.
151. The Clerk of the Scales shall –
(f) calculate, to compensate for the wearing of safety vests, that the weight of all riders shall be at 1 kilogram less than the weight which is registered on the scale at both weighing-out and weighing-in.
In summary Trippi’s Express was handicapped at 59 kg, the rider allowed 1 kg for the safety vest taking the weight to 60 kg and A L Da Silva returned to weigh-in at 60.5 kg which is within the 1 kg limit provided in Rule of Racing 198. This explains the extra 1.5 kg shown on the scales when the Brazilian jockey weighed-in which is totally in accordance with the Rules of Racing.
The HRD Clerk of Scales performed his duties as per the Rules of Racing in a professional manner and to be commended not ridiculed.
This piece of information could have been obtained with a simple phone call to HRD, which forms the basis of impartial journalism for verifying any information. The HRD appeals to all journalists to check their information before publication of articles, and to seek the versions of both parties when there is an article which implicates the HRD, and which, moreover, can sow doubt in the minds of the public on the organisation entrusted to control horse racing in Mauritius.