THE most talked about incident of the past week in Britain was the finish of the Byrne Group Handicap Chase at Ascot on Saturday. The race lay between the Paul Nicholls pair Diego Du Charmil and Capeland going to the last, with the riderless Ballywood preceding them.

The last named ran around the fence, and this distracted Diego Du Charmil, who cocked his jaw and attempted to follow suit. The result was that he carried Capeland into the wing of the fence, and while Diego Du Charmil managed to jump the corner of the fence, he pushed his stable-companion through the wing.

Incidents

Similar incidents can happen when horses look to find their way back to the paddock before the finish at certain tracks, and there are a number of refusals, attempted refusals, run-outs etc every year in such circumstance.

It’s not unknown for a horse to refuse at the last and take another out with it, but a horse trying to run out who causes another to do so before continuing is a rarity. The question is how to deal with it, and in a complicated case, the stewards did it perfectly, unlike many stewards in the stands who asked all the right questions, but not necessarily in the right order, and order is important here.

In order to solve a tricky conundrum, we should decide quickly what is germane to the equation and what is not, and when we have identified issues which are not relevant, we must put those aside, otherwise they are apt to distract.

One irrelevant aspect to debate about the decision was how unlucky Capeland was. It seems unfair that he should do nothing wrong and yet lose the race through no fault of his own, but life is unfair, and anyone who says different is trying to sell you something.

Feeling sorry for Capeland achieves nothing, and thinking that he deserves ‘something’ as recompense for his troubles is nonsensical. What matters with Capeland in the first instance is whether he completed the course. He didn’t, and that cannot be gainsaid.

It might make you seethe inside, but it cannot be denied that Capeland did not complete the course, but because Bryony Frost continued on him after being put through the wing, he must be disqualified.

Crucial

This is the crucial decision made by the stewards, and it’s a no-brainer. Capeland is correctly disqualified, and there is no other outcome possible given the circumstances.

The next question is whether Diego Du Charmil completed the course; that involves more thought, but I think the vast majority of people would agree that while he may have jumped the last in an unconventional manner, he did (just) jump it. The stewards described him as jumping “the boss” of the fence, and correctly called him as completing the course.

Next, was there interference? I think we have no debate about that, but was it caused by dangerous riding, careless riding, or was it accidental? Again, one or two may disagree, but the majority can see that the incident was caused by Diego Du Charmil trying to run out, and Lorcan Williams was powerless to prevent him.

The next question stewards would normally as is what difference this interference made to finishing positions, but while this would have been interesting had Capeland finished the race, it is now moot because the only horse who suffered interference is disqualified, and it is impossible for the stewards to demote the winner, as there is nothing to place him behind.

As the rules stand, the only way the winner could be thrown out would be in the case of dangerous riding, and that was clearly not the case.

It’s been suggested that the rules be changed in the light of what happened, but I can’t see that the desire for natural justice is served by giving the race to the runner-up, who was beaten on merit.

Bizarre

I’m all for a much stricter line on the definition of dangerous riding, but this is not the case with which to labour that argument, and while it was a bizarre scenario, you can’t legislate for bizarre, and nor should you have to.