Horse racing farce sees 12 out of 13 jockeys banned after horse gifted win
A race which shocked the horse racing community saw 12 jockeys receive bans from the stewards.
The weighing room members trailed Wrecking Ball Paul by a huge distance in a Flat contest at Dundalk on Friday.
Ridden by 17-year-old Kevin Healy, the 18-1 shot came home an unchallenged 15-length winner. His race-riding colleagues were in trouble as they failed to give their mounts a chance at the Co Louth course.
Among the group was John Gleeson, who took last year's Cheltenham Festival Champion Bumper on A Dream To Share and Gordon Elliott's top amateur Harry Swan.
The stewards report said: "Having taken each individual rider's record in this regard into account, the raceday stewards suspended the following riders for five days: Mr P.A Dunne, Mr H.C Swan, Mr A.P Ryan, Mr F Maguire, Mr A Harvey, Mr B.M Coonan, Miss G Benson, Mr J.L Gleeson, Mr R James, Miss A.B O'Connor, Mr S.P Queally and Mr P Hanlon."
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After Khadaash refused to race, the 12 other horses broke from the stalls to run over the Peter K. Hits The Big 50 (Q.R.) Handicap's two-mile trip.
A couple of furlongs in, Wrecking Ball Paul took a keen hold for his teenage rider and was well clear at halfway. The rest made some inroads into the straight, but they were never within striking distance of Paul Mulligan's longshot.
Wrecking Ball Paul recorded a 15-length winning margin for 17-year-old jockey Kevin Healy (Racing TV)Healy told Racing TV: "He's a serious horse galloping and fair play to Paul [Mulligan] because that's the third week he's been running and he's a hardy horse.
"He went very well and I didn't actually realise how much of a gap there was until I came round the home bend. I knew then I had lots of horse left under me and I wasn't too worried. Paul said to get a breather into him and I gave him one down the back, but I didn't realise how far ahead I was.
"Paul is good friends with my father and he asked if I wanted to ride him. I couldn't believe it and I'm delighted to get my first winner. It was my third ride and it was great to get the win."
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