Callan Murray – not his best ride
Promising young jockey Callan Murray has escaped with a caution from the Stipendiary Stewards for ‘looking around’ and the use of his whip, after getting beaten into second place on the 1 to 3 favourite Sir David Baird at Turffontein on Thursday.
In a field reduced to just four runners, the facile debut winning son of Dynasty from the Mike de Kock yard looked a decent bet – but the old adage of the smaller the field, the bigger the upset, again came home to bite favourite backers. But this time, jockeyship may well have played a role in the favourite’s defeat.
Sir David Baird had ranged up at the 500m with Murray sitting with what looked like a double handful.
He glanced around a few times as the balance of the field appeared to be battling. But it is possible that Murray only took action late when he saw JP van der Merwe ghosting up on his outside late on the 14 to 1 Darkest Hour. Murray went for his whip late – but too late – and Darkest Hour went on by to win by a half length.
Quoted on www.mikedekockracing.com
Mike de Kock said about Sir David Baird: “He’s a horse that has to be scrubbed along to keep his momentum so Callan Murray’s looking around near the end didn’t help. He was over-confident, we shouldn’t have lost and he knew it. He came back pale as a ghost and I let him have it!
“Callan’s a young jockey though, this is how they learn and if he doesn’t get time from the stipes, he will get time from me. Jockeys are paid to keep their heads down and win, not for antics. Punters hate this. But the sooner this happened for Callan, the better. It’s out of the way now, he won’t do it again!”
The Stipes reported:
In the concluding stages, when racing in close proximity, DARKEST HOUR (J P van der Merwe) was accidentally struck on the head by Jockey C Murray, the rider of SIR DAVID BAIRD.
When questioned regarding his ride on SIR DAVID BAIRD, Jockey C Murray explained that in a small field he was caught relatively wide and exposed without cover. Entering the straight he was prominently placed and at the 300m commenced to ask this gelding for an effort and had ridden SIR DAVID BAIRD to the finish, in the knowledge that DARKEST HOUR (J P van der Merwe) was closing the race off strongly and was improving on his outside.
Jockey Murray was advised to take more care when using his crop in close proximity to other horses. He was further advised against the practice of looking around in races.
