Owners of Millie's Kiss express sympathy for Charlie McBride

Connections of Millie's Kiss expressed their sympathy for Newmarket-based Charlie McBrideafter their filly won a race it should never have been running in.

John Mear, a member of the Four Winds Racing Partnership that own the three-year-old, said: "We are all shocked and desperately upset for Charlie. It's nothing untoward. He's just made a genuine mistake. He must be absolutely heartbroken.

"When we found out Millie's Kiss had been withdrawn, we could never imagine something like this could have happened."

John Egan, who rode the winner believes the stewards should have declared the race void. He said: "At the end of the day, we're all human. Mistakes happen. I feel most sorry for Charlie. We'll all get over it. It's one race, one horse, one day.

"I'm surprised on the day the stewards didn't make the race void or disqualify the winner. It was the wrong horse in the wrong race and a very simple calculation."

McBride was not available for comment.

Instances such as this are extremely rare but one such case was at Southwell in January 1996. In a case of mistaken identity, Loch Style, trained by Reg Hollinshead, ran in the name of Taniyar in the Waterford Median Auction Stakes.

Loch Style had been entered to run later at the meeting but he was saddled up and sent out for the earlier race instead of his stablemate and finished seventh.

Hollinshead did not realise a mistake had been made until the horse was taken into the unsaddling enclosure after the race.