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The connections of Shes Perfect, demoted to second place in the Group One Emirates Poule d’Essai des Pouliches (French 1000 Guineas) at Longchamp on Sunday have decided to launch an appeal.
Winning a nose clear at the line under a determined Kieran Shoemark ride, she was adjudged to have interfered with the Ryan Moore ridden Exactly who in turn bumped into favourite Zarigana, and that was enough to see her lose the race for her syndicate of owners, who had been seen celebrating after the race.
Many in the UK felt that Shes Perfect had been hard done by on the day, but the decision was made by the French stewards to reverse the placings, and she officially will have to settle for second place for now, though their basis for an appeal breaks new ground with regard to the whip rules. No-one is suggesting that jockey Mickael Barzalona whipped Zarigana more that the allowed number under French rules (nine means an instant disqualification, five or six in a Group race a five-day suspension and seven to nine strikes a 10 day ban) and the issue is over the jockeys use of his hand after he dropped the whip, and whether (or not) they count as a strike.
This looks like an argument for the respective legal teams, with Charlie Fellowes expected to insist that a slap on the neck is the same as a use of the whip - and the connections of Zarigana suggesting the opposite, in a case that may yet have ramifications for the future on both sides of the English Channel.
Speaking on Nick Luck's podcast on Monday, trainer Charlie Fellowes said "One thing that I have a problem with, and that we will raise in an appeal, if it gets to that, is the way that Zarigana was ridden after the interference," said Fellowes.
"The interference happens over a furlong out. Ryan [Moore on Exactly] pushes Mickael's horse across the track. Mickael pulls his stick through to his left hand, he gives her two hits, and he then drops it. That drop has absolutely nothing to do with the interference, it was just a pure jockey error. He then puts both hands back on the reins, because his filly starts to hang right, and he hits her with his hand 12 times down the neck.
"I don't believe that is riding within the rules of racing because, if you're allowed to do that, every jockey in the weighing room would go to the limit–in France it's four, in England it's seven–they'd put their stick down and then they'd starting hitting it with their hand as encouragement. I don't believe any of the rules-makers, in France or in England, believe that is what should happen once you've used your limit with the stick."
He continued, "In France, four hits is the limit, anything between five and nine is a ban and a fine, and anything over nine is disqualification. If they decide that the hand counts as hitting a horse, which I believe it does, then she should be disqualified. He wasn't slapping the horse down the neck to give it a pat and say well done. He was slapping it down the neck to get her to go faster and I don't believe that is allowed.
"They're in danger of setting a precedent here that they don't want. Nothing was said on the day and that's where I want clarification. I don't want clarification on the interference or anything like that. That is not going to get overturned. I agree that there was interference and I agree that the margin at the line was incredibly small. I don't have a problem with that. What I'm not sure
about is the way that their filly was ridden from the moment Mickael dropped his stick to the winning line."