An extraordinary oversight took place at Kempton last Wednesday night when the winner of the concluding 2200m handicap was confused with a stablemate and raced from the wrong stall.
Isdaal, 33-1 shot, came with a late surge under jockey Patrick O’Donnell to defeat Honey Badger by a short head at Kempton having started the race from stall eight.
In fact, she should have raced from a wider stall in 13, which was instead occupied by her stablemate Haames, who was the horse that should have been in stall eight.
Both horses are trained by Kevin Morgan and owned by Roemex Ltd, although only Haames carried the white and red colours of the owner with Isdaal wearing a changed strip of blue and white.
In a statement released on Thursday morning, the BHA said an investigation had been launched into the events around the race, but added there were no powers to void the race or disqualify any of the runners.
BHA Reacts
The BHA said: “We will be looking into circumstances surrounding the 9.10pm at Kempton on Wednesday where two horses started from the incorrect stalls.
“The rules provide that it is the ultimate responsibility of the jockeys to ensure they enter the correct stalls. However, there are procedures to be followed at the start of the race to mitigate risk of such incidents. We will look to see these procedures have been followed correctly before deciding what action to take.
Penalties for riders who go into the wrong stall are listed as a one-day ban if the offence is deemed accidental, while a deliberate start from the wrong stall is punishable with a seven-day ban.
Adding insult to injury?
There was one stewards’ inquiry after the final race at Kempton, which was into the ride given to the second Honey Badger by jockey Robert Tart.
Tart was handed a two-day careless riding ban for interfering with Isdaal, who beat him a short head, and a further four-day ban for using his whip over the permitted level.
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