tabGOLD - THE INTELLIGENT BET! MAIDEN PLATE (For all Maidens)

THE STARTER REPORTED: a) A KINGS RETURN (M V'Rensburg), ONE TOO MANY (S Moodley) and CAPTAIN NITS (A Arries) lost 1 length respectively. THE STIPENDIARY STEWARDS REPORTED : a) BUGSY MALONE (*R Venniker) was hanging in from the 400m. b) At the 200m, ONE TOO MANY (S Moodley) had to switch out off the heels of DROGARATI (A Mgudlwa) which was hanging in from the 400m. c) Jockey A Marcus appeared before the Board and was questioned regarding his ride on GOLD ENSIGN. Prior to the questioning, the Board explained to Jockey A Marcus that it accepted that GOLD ENSIGN was hanging in from the 800m, this gelding showed a significant tendency to hang in between the 350m and 200m and that these factors had affected Jockey A Marcus' ride. The Board rather drew Mr Marcus' attention to the fact that after he drew his crop at the 150m and changed his hold, this appeared to assist GOLD ENSIGN, to straighten, balance and guide this gelding to the finish. Accordingly, the question was put to Mr Marcus whether it would not have been more appropriate to have changed his hold and used his crop as a guide from an earlier stage of the concluding stages. In this regard, Jockey A Marcus explained to the Board that, GOLD ENSIGN was outpaced and had shown a tendency to hang in from an early stage. Consequently, he had attempted to strike the balance between keeping his mount on a straight course and not causing interference and giving this gelding every opportunity to finish its race off strongly. However, entering the concluding stages, due to this gelding's racing manners, he elected not to change his hold and draw his crop but rather keep the horse balanced with the hands into the final stages of the race, as he was of the view that GOLD ENSIGN could hang in at any point, which was evidenced by the fact that as soon as there was a minor release of pressure on this gelding's reins at the 300m when he attempted to change his hold and draw his crop, this gelding lugged in and became severely unbalanced. This unbalancing resulted in him having to first re-balance and straighten GOLD ENSIGN prior to him again attempting, on that occasion successfully, to change his hold and draw his crop in order to use it to guide this gelding to the finish. The Board noted the explanation of Jockey A Marcus and will monitor the racing manners of GOLD ENSIGN. d) ONE TOO MANY (S Moodley), the winner, was selected for the taking of specimens for analysis. Trainer M L Roberts advised (ML). JOCKEY / EQUIPMENT CHANGES : a) GOLD ENSIGN raced with half cup blinker (left side) (advised 14.09.21/13h27). b) BUGSY MALONE raced with blinkers (17.09.21/09h29) and with a cornell collar. RACE CARD CHANGES / OTHER : a) Nil. THE VETERINARY SURGEON REPORTED : a) No reports. THERE WERE NO SCRATCHINGS