Bogenhuber suspension overturned on appeal
Queensland jockey Skye Bogenhuber has won an appeal against a suspension on a handling charge.
Queensland stewards suspended Bogenhuber for two months over her ride on Happy Event in the Dalrello Stakes at Toowoomba on April 16.
After a lengthy hearing, stewards found Bogenhuber, who had pleaded not guilty, had not made enough effort to restrain Happy Event, who was over-racing in the joint lead during the middle stages of the race.
At a two-hour Racing Disciplinary Board hearing on Tuesday, Bogenhuber said she did everything possible to get Happy Event, who had lost her tongue-tie, to settle but the horse had wanted to run off.
She said Happy Event had come back under her once she eventually got to the lead.
“Happy Event wanted to fight me and you can see I was sitting high trying to get her to come back under me,” she said.
Bogenhuber said Jim Byrne on the favourite Love Spy gave her no help by not giving up the lead.
Jim Murdoch QC, for Bogenhuber, said she had followed the trainer’s instructions to be on the pace.
“The tongue tie fitted to the horse had come off pre-race and that made Happy Event more difficult to control,” Murdoch said.
Toowoomba chief steward Rion Hitchener said his panel were not attacking Bogenhuber’s integrity but rather they believed she had made a wrong decision which affected the horse’s chances of winning or running a place.
He said stewards did not dispute the horse had lost its tongue tie but could see no evidence the horse had been uncontrollable.
Board chairman Brock Miller said the stewards had every right to question the ride but the board could not he satisfied to the required standard it was culpable enough to breach the rules.
Bogenhuber had been riding under a stay of proceedings until Tuesday’s appeal and won on smart two-year-old Greyt Start at the Gold Coast on Saturday.