John Gosden defends Robert Havlin following controversial Lingfield ride

John Gosden has defended Robert Havlinwho received a 21-day ban following his controversial ride aboard Stowell who finished an eye-catching second at Lingfield on Wednesday.

Havlin, who will not be appealing the ban, was found by the stewards to have failed to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best possible position, with the officials saying his ride aboard the 16-1 newcomer was “an apparently tender hands and heels ride”.

Speaking to Lydia Hislop on Racing TV on Friday, Gosden admitted that he instructs all his jockeys to avoid using the whip on his newcomers – if at all it can be avoided, and that he was happy with the ride.

"[With] horses first time out, it's an instruction I always give," explained Gosden.

"My father... I remember a jockey walking across the paddock here to ride a two-year-old first time out and my father took it off him.

"Look, the reason they have it is if they start veering off a course and we had plenty of evidence of that in the first race today of if they're being a colt and not bothering to race, you know 'Come on now, concentrate'.

"But on the whole, I do not like the stick to be used on a horse first time out. It's a sort of rule of mine and he followed my instruction, as he always does. He's a great horseman, good jockey.

"I think in terms of the suspension, if he'd appealed he might get a few days off, but you're still going to get stuck with some days and I think what people probably don't clock is how hard these jockeys work. He is up and down the country, riding work for me at 5.30, then driving to Newcastle and coming straight back at 11.30 or midnight and riding again for me the next morning trackwork and then on to the races.

"He probably hasn't had a day off for 20 months and this is the most perfect opportunity for him to take some time off in May. I know it's taking his livelihood away for a time, but quite frankly his father's not so well in Scotland, so he wants to go and see him and I think you take a negative and turn it into a positive."

Gosden explained why he was happy with the ride Havlin gave Stowell, who finished a head behind stablemate Polling Day, and that he wouldn't have been bothered if the the pair had caught the winner.

"I was indeed [happy with the ride] and it wouldn't have bothered me if he had got up and beaten the other horse as we're not a gambling stable," said Gosden.

"Neither owner of those horses is interested in betting, so that point it wouldn't have mattered in the slightest.

"He was riding a horse that's never run before, a horse that's had quite a lot of issues which is he hadn't run before. From my point of view it was hands and heels and that's all I ask, but it wouldn't have bothered me if he had won."

Asked if punters should be told beforehand if an instruction is going to be given that the whip won't be used, Gosden said he believes people understand that a jockey isn't going "to throw the kitchen sink" at a horse making their racecourse debut. He explained:

"Well I think if a horse is first time out, people understand it. Once it goes on, we've got the whole whip review coming. I think it's a very important part. I wouldn't want to be riding a horse in a two or three-mile chase, taking a horse who is losing concentration into an open ditch, not being able to slap it and say 'Come on now, concentrate'.

"I think, to an extent, when used artistically, and the style of some of these jockeys is amazing, it is an art form. These sticks are very air-cushioned, they're not like the old ones, they might make a nice noise, but they don't hurt them. So to that extent, it's fine. But when a horse runs first time out, it's just something my father ingrained in me and it's always been that way.

"I think people understand that for a horse's first race in its life, you're not going to throw the kitchen sink at it, are you?'

It has been a trying week for Gosden’s jockeys as the first apprentice he has taken on for 29 years, Benoit de la Sayette, who won the Lincoln last month on Haqeeqy, tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine having originally denied taking the drug.

"They're young kids, they're teenagers, they've been in lockdown on and off for a year. They're bored stiff and they can't even go and play football with their friends in the park," Gosden said.

"They're going to be looking for another stimulant. We don't have to be Einstein to see that alcohol sales have gone through the roof in lockdown because people are bored of looking at the walls.

"These kids are no different and they need all the support they can get and a firm talking-to. If there's any question of addiction, they need to go into a programme. But remember, for these jockeys, with cocaine - which is readily-available, I bet we could go into Esher now and get some in a beer garden - is something that actually suppresses appetite.

"It's a way of 'having a drink'. You drink alcohol, you get sugar and all the carbohydrates with it, so obviously it's convenient.

"But it is illegal and it's got to be stamped out. There's no doubt that urine samples are one thing but hair samples are another. He was messing about with it at the start of the year and he's paid a mighty price for it.

"I see no harm in doing more testing. It's an obvious place to go. They do plenty of urine testing here, but if they want to take a stage further, they're certainly within their rights to do so."