Duke Of Marmalade – during his racing days
Simple Verse has been reinstated as the St Leger winner, following a three-hour hearing at which her connections appealed against the fact that she was disqualified and placed second by the Doncaster stewards. Bondi Beach, who suffered undoubted interference from Simple Verse and was awarded the race on the day, has been relegated to second place once more and had his resolution questioned into the bargain.
As a result, Qatar’s Sheikh Fahad has indeed won his first British Classic as an owner. “He’s obviously absolutely overjoyed,” said David Redvers, the Sheikh’s bloodstock advisor, who sat through the hearing. “There’s no question that it’s been a very tough 11 days for Sheikh Fahad as well.
“We had to jump straight on a plane to go to the Irish Champion Stakes, which looked a little bit at the time like we were running away from Doncaster but we weren’t at all, we had no choice. It’s testament to him that he got straight back up on the podium and presented a trophy so quickly after what was the greatest success of his racing career and also the greatest disappointment.
“And that’s the only sad thing. He and all of us here feel these things come about so rarely, when they come you ought to be able to celebrate them immediately and hard.”
Aidan O’Brien – ‘gave up thinking a long time ago’
But the appeals panel, which is brought together by the BHA but is independent of the ruling body, appears to have decided that a first incident of interference, at the two-furlong pole, left sufficient time for Bondi Beach to recover and go past his rival if he was good enough. A second incident inside the final furlong was, the panel felt, insufficient to have affected the outcome.
Their conclusion vindicates the argument put forward by Graeme McPherson QC on behalf of the Simple Verse team, who said of the first interference: “There’s no getting away from the fact that there is 440 yards from there to the line. The business end of the race is still ahead.”
McPherson also suggested that Bondi Beach would not have won whatever had happened. “This is a horse that, bluntly, is reluctant to go past,” he said.
The result was taken philosophically by Bondi Beach’s trainer, Aidan O’Brien, who did not appear to relish the length of the hearing. Asked what he thought of the outcome, he replied: “I gave up thinking a long time ago.”
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