Macmillan Cautioned By Stewards
- Thursday, 11 November 2010 07:57
TRSA Stewards have cautioned trainer John Macmillan after he made misleading comments in South Australian newspaper The Advertiser.
When asked about the performance of Willego in the Watersearch Pty Ltd 0-81 Handicap (1500m) at Gawler on October 27, Macmillan was quoted as saying in the paper recently, “(Willego) got knocked down more times than I’ve ever seen in a race and the jockey got off and actually told me she thought he should just about have won.”
Willego finished ninth in the ten-horse field, beaten 5.2 lengths from the winner. The only mention in the stewards’ report was the fact Willego lost its near fore plate during the event.
When stewards quizzed Macmillan over his comments, he said that he had repeated the comments made by jockey Tamara Zanker post-race and that he had only witnessed the race from the SKY Channel footage and not seen the stewards’ footage.
Zanker later said she was frustrated that Willego was hesitant when racing inside runners and had mostly contributed to its own predicament during the race.
At an adjourned inquiry today, Macmillan was shown the stewards’ footage of the race and Macmillan conceded that, apart from an incident shortly after the start of the race, for the remainder of the event Willego had an uninterrupted path in when racing on the rail with adequate racing room inside other runners.
Macmillan acknowledged the comments reported were ill-informed and stewards after considering his explanation cautioned Macmillan against making unqualified statements in future and advised him that such comments could be construed as a “misleading statement in connection with the control of racing,” which is a breach of the rules.
