Free Wind was making her first appearance since winning the Park Hill Stakes at Doncaster’s St Leger Meeting and was sent off the 11/4 joint-favourite with Crowley’s mount Eshaadah (Roger Varian), and she was tracking Eshaadah when the incident occurred early in the straight. Crowley, leading the race, left a gap on his inside and kept that gap open, which drew Havlin into challenging between the leader and the rail, where there appeared plenty of room.

As soon as Havlin had moved into the gap, however, Crowley attempted to close it, and as a result the two fillies collided, with Free Wind then bouncing off the rail to collide again with Eshaadah, this unbalancing her, and allowing Sea La Rosa (William Haggas/Cieren Fallon) to take the initiative.

Eshaadah was unable to respond, but Free Wind rallied in remarkable fashion to regain her momentum, and when switched to the outside, she quickened impressively to catch Sea La Rosa at the distance, sprinting away from that point to record a two and a quarter-length win, with Eshaadah beaten a neck for second spot.

The unfortunate aspect of this incidence of serious interference is that in rescinding the original punishment, the BHA have let the situation go without any real fault being apportioned; Crowley received a belated caution as to his future conduct, but that is hardly sufficient deterrent when you consider that Christophe Soumillon got 12 days for what was a lesser offence at Sandown.

In my view the interference was beyond careless, and Crowley was aware that he was closing a legitimate gap which he himself opened, although I would concede that he executed the manoeuvre poorly, as he surely intended to close the door on Havlin before contact occurred.

In that sense, I’d stop short of saying that the interference itself was intentional, but the ploy appeared designed to inconvenience Havlin’s mount by putting her in a pocket.

In fact, it very nearly put her and Havlin over the rails, and stronger action must be taken to stop such deliberate manoeuvres, as the current stewarding guidelines merely promote this type of aggressive riding.

As a rule, the stewards are applying bad rules correctly, but in this case the application of the rules was also poorly executed, and the initial decision to ban Havlin would have been an egregious injustice.

THE Group 3 Coral Charge saw the now-familiar black and orange silks of The Horsewatchers carried to victory by James Doyle on the Mick Appleby-trained Raasel.

The gelding was winning off a mark of 73 last September having been bought by the partnership, which includes Racing TV pundits Chris and Martin Dixon among others, for just 10,000gns out of Marcus Tregoning’s yard less than two years ago.

He has improved so much in the interim that he was the joint-highest-rated runner in the Charge, and the 5/2 chance came with a sweeping run down the outside to grab the spoils by a neck from favourite Mitbaahy (Roger Varian/David Egan), who endured a troubled passage from the inside stall. Method stayed on late to be third, a length behind the runner-up.

The 5/2 winner has Goodwood next on his agenda, with Mick Appleby aiming him at the King George Stakes before a possible shot at the Flying Five at the Curragh, and the Prix de l’Abbaye assuming the ground is not soft.

Distaff Dame

Heredia was a hot favourite for the Listed Coral Distaff, but she couldn’t repeat her Ascot form, and it was Coronation Stakes flop Grande Dame (John & Thady Gosden/Ryan Moore) who ended up winning impressively, quickening away from long-time leader Oscula (George Boughey/Will Buick) to win by three and as quarter lengths at an SP of 4/1.

She lacked the know-how against top-class fillies in the Coronation, but found this company much more to her liking, and ought to progress again.

Asked to assess her prospects after this win, John Gosden replied: “I think she is up to group class with three-year-old fillies. Whether she is up to group class with older fillies will be another matter, we’ll see.

“She is a big-framed filly that was backward last year but has come to herself now and Ryan was pretty keen to stay at a mile. There is a race in Deauville (Prix de Lieurey) maybe for her.”