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The 4th of August 1980, and a summer holiday crowd at Ripon had gathered for what, on paper, appeared to be an unspectacular afternoon of racing. The feature race was the Horn Blower Stakes which had attracted six runners, with a support card of handicaps and a seller. However, what unfolded was an afternoon of confusion and controversy. I had three runners that day, Lady Ragstone having finished fourth in the seller and with Wynburry and Walter Osborne to run in the 4.30 ‘Yorkshire 3-Year-Old Handicap’. The 4.00 race also saw my brother Peter field Moor House and Rosie's Secret. Race time came and the runners for the 4.30 set off but after a furlong there was a red flag and six horses stopped but the remaining eight carried on with Wynburry passing the post first at odds of 14/1. At 4.35 the race was declared void, but then at 4.48 it was announced there had been a false start. Nobody knew what to do. What should happen now? The decision was then made to rerun the race. The call of void by the stewards was wrong. It wasn’t a void race, it was just a race that had taken an hour to run. At 5.32 the runners set off for a second time with only five of the 14 horses, including Wynburry, taking part. Some of the horses had already run six furlongs an hour ago, some hadn’t. And instead of running from their original stalls, the horses were loaded into stalls 1 to 5 thus negating any draw advantages due to the smaller field. This time there was a different result, as the Ray Peacock-trained Swaying Tree passed the post first under Cyril Bleasdale at odds of 6/5. Wynburry finished third. Confusion followed as bookmakers didn't know at which odds to pay out as in the first race Swaying Tree had been sent off at odds of 4/1. Bookmakers rules said that the original prices stood and punters who had backed Swaying Tree at 4/1 should be paid out at 4/1 and not at 6/5. After much confusion, punters who had backed horses in the original race were paid out at the starting price for the rerun. Those who only bet in the rerun were paid at the prices at the off for the rerun. John McCririck, who was then a spokesman for the Sporting Life, was up in arms. Punters who had backed the horses in the original race only to see their horse withdrawn in the rerun lost their money as they were declared non-runners. One of the oddest things about the race was that Eddie Hide had started the race on Swaying Tree, one of the horses that had been pulled up after the red flag, but after the race had been kicked in the ribs by a horse and taken to York District Hospital with suspected kidney damage. Cyril Bleasdale had taken the ride in the rerun and won the race. The winning horse had started the race with one jockey and finished with another. |
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