Racing authorities intervened on Monday to cancel a ten-day suspension given to jockey Jack Garritty after supporters expressed anger over the penalty at Leicester.
Jack Garritty successfully removed his ten-day ban for his ride on Red Derek at Leicester on Monday.
Jack Garritty has been handed a ten-day non-trier ban after riding the Lisa Williamson-trained Red Derek to a third-place finish at Leicester. pic.twitter.com/dVYLFFrh6F
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Racecourse officials claimed the rider failed to give maximum effort and relied on sectional timings to support their position.
The Professional Jockeys Association stated that Garritty was confronted with these timings on the day without proper time to review the context.
Stewards argued that the horse finished strongly because of a poor early position in a race where rivals set too fast a pace.
The timings showed that while the slow-starting horse recorded the fastest closing sectionals, his speed decreased during every furlong.
This meant the animal simply finished less slowly than competitors in the 1m2f race, with one expert describing him as the most efficiently paced horse throughout.
Spectators watching the event saw no issue with the performance.
Observers agreed that a slow-starting horse was simply passing exhausted runners through heavy ground.
Garritty appealed the punishment, but the BHA took the rare action of using Rule (L)7 to set aside the stewards.
A sharp statement from the PJA urged the BHA to train their stewards to use and be able to interpret the data correctly.
They noted that stewards palpably failed to contextualise the data, meaning they comprehensively misunderstood and misrepresented it.
The organisation also demanded that stewards halt the use of timings until they agree to disclose them to jockeys in advance of being used when building a case.
The BHA released a statement saying, "After further review, the BHA exercised its powers under rule (L)7 to quash the decision taken in relation to Mr Garritty, as it has been determined the threshold for a breach of the rules wasn't met."
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