Oisin Murphy to miss St Leger meeting after opting against appeal
By Racing TV
Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023
Oisin Murphy will miss the Pertemps St Leger Festival at Doncaster after deciding not to appeal against a seven-day suspension.
The champion jockey was banned from September 7 to 13 inclusive after the Ayr stewards found him guilty of careless riding aboard winner Tiritomba in Monday’s Shadwell Stud Maiden Stakes.
The suspension means he will be sidelined for the Doncaster fixture, which runs September 9-12, but Murphy felt he would have been unlikely to succeed in having his penalty quashed or reduced by the British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel.
He said: “It is going to be difficult to sit a week out, but if the stewards on the day feel I deserve to get a week’s suspension, it is likely the BHA appeal panel will agree with them.
“I don’t want to waste anyone else’s time or my own time by sitting there on a Zoom call for two and a half hours. Although it is very tough to take, I’ve just got to accept it.”
Tiritomba appeared to drift across second-placed Ricksen in the finish, with the Ayr stewards deciding Murphy had “allowed his mount to drift left for a considerable time without sufficient correction causing (Ricksen’s rider Paul) Mulrennan to take a significant check and clip heels”.
Murphy – who is well clear of Tom Marquand in the race for this year’s riders’ championship – felt he had done his best in the circumstances, adding: “The horse hung fire and I didn’t pick my stick up and I never took my hands off the reins.
“There is actually a photo going past the line where it is clearly obvious that the bit has come through his mouth. I don’t have wing mirrors and there was no shout.
“You see me riding every day and I don’t want to get any suspensions.”
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