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Watch: Cosgrave given 28-day ban after throwing away victory

Last Updated: Tue 5 Dec 2023

Pat Cosgrave was given a 28-day ban at Chelmsford on Thursday night after easing up on a hot favourite and dramatically snatching defeat from the jaws of victory.

Cosgrave was coasting to an easy win on the George Boughey-trained Concorde, the 1-6 favourite, in the Bosh Handicap over a mile at 8pm when taking things easy inside the final furlong.

It proved a costly misjudgement by the vastly experienced 40-year-old with My Roxanne, an 8-1 chance ridden by Ben Robinson, overhauling Concorde in the final stride. The winning distance was a nose.

Watch a full replay

Ashen faced, Cosgrave was swift to apologise and admit his blunder afterwards to Racing TV's Jess Stafford.

"I sat last in the race; went through the gears in the straight and passed the [other] four horses," he said. "I’ve jut made a judgement of error , a mistake. The eventual winner has just caught me unaware.

“First of all, I’d like to apologise to the connections, Mr and Mrs Roy, also to my trainer, George Boughey. It’s a bit embarrassing, really. I just have to take it on the chin."

He added: "The horse should have won. I have to accept it was completely my fault. It’s very unfortunate for connections and all concerned. I’m very, very sorry for what happened.”

Full interview: Pat Cosgrave chats to Jess Stafford about Concorde's dramatic defeat

Cosgrave began riding in 1999 and has ridden more than 1100 winners in Britain and Ireland. He is not the first jockey to have been such a blunder, and he won't be the last.

But that will be of little consolation to those who backed Concorde at cramped odds, or including him in accumulators after his easy win at Redcar earlier this week.

In-runnning, a total of £12,000 was matched at the minimum price of 1.01 on Concorde on Betfair. First prize in the race was £4,004 with second being £1,878.84.

After being interviewed and shown recordings of the incident by the stewards, Cosgrave was suspended for 28 days for "failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to obtain the best placing on a horse that would have finished first".

The length of the ban is the maximum that stewards at the Essex track could have imposed.

Ben Bromley was also handed a 28-day ban after easing up on Call My Lord at Sandown in December, when he rode to the wrong finishing post. To rub salt in the wounds, he was given an additional four days for overuse of the whip.

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