Haydock Parks short comings cost Bergin 28 days!

I have little time for a jockey that fails to ride a horse out to the winning line but have some sympathy when it is hard to distinguish where the winning line is.

  

My immediate response to yesterdays David Bergin incident in the Haydock Park 14:10 was sympathetic. As Channel 4 showed a re-run of the race I was quizzical as to when Bergin had dropped his hands as I had also assumed that the ½ furlong pole was the winning line.

If I can make that mistake from the comfort of my living room it must be a whole lot easier a mistake to make in the heat of battle on the racecourse.

As the race continued, like David Bergin I became aware that the race was still to be won but only by the continued vigorous urging's of Robert Tart on Albaqaa who was alongside Bergin’s Classic Calori.

As they flashed past the post together the one thing that became abundantly clear is that the ½ furlong pole looked far more visibly prominent than the winning pole, with only a mowed strip of grass and a headless pole to set them apart. A strip of grass that is probably hard to distinguish when travelling at 35 miles an hour on the back of a race horse.

David Bergin got his entry level 28 days for his failure to ride out to the line but the real failure in my opinion is Haydock Park not making the finishing line easily distinguishable. Hopefully something they will rectify in light of this event.