Paul Moloney weighed in one and a half pounds light on the well-backed winner Green To Gold at Worcester, co-owned by Sir Alex Ferguson and was still allowed to keep the race! To be consistent with similar past events the local stewards should have disqualified Green to Gold following the objection from the clerk of the scales as Moloney weighed in at 11st 8lb after weighing out at 11st 10lb.
However, they used their discretion and sited the extremely hot weather and Moloney's inability to rehydrate in-between races and stated 'these circumstances are exceptional so the stewards allowed the result to stand'.
Green For Gold, trained by Don Cantillon, was sent off the evens favourite for the Find Us On Facebook Handicap Chase and justified strong support with a convincing victory by five lengths.
"It's automatic that if a rider weighs in more than 1lb under weight, the clerk of the scales is obliged to report to the stewards" stipendiary steward Paul Barton told At The Races.
The rule gives the stewards the power to disqualify if they aren't satisfied or even on some occasions where they are satisfied and they know the reason. If a rider lost a weight cloth in a race and it led to the 1lb under weight the horse would be disqualified, but the rider would not be penalised. What happened under these circumstances, and they are extremely unusual and I've not known this invoked before, is that Paul Moloney weighed out for the first race and at the same time weighed out for the second. We held a stewards' inquiry straight after the first race and came into our stewards' room which was extremely hot and sat in there, still sweating, and went out for the second race. He came back in and weighed in more than a pound under weight. The digital scales measure in half-pounds, not in ounces in between. What we heard from the clerk of the scales on his (Moloney's) body weight before he went out and when he came back in, the weight loss was caused by him sweating. All the lads can do is take a drink and hope they rehydrate. We had him in the stewards' room for five minutes or more, holding an inquiry, so he didn't get the opportunity to rehydrate.
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