Never put a woman in charge :)

Davey Devil

http://www.racingpost.co.uk/news/rp_std_page.sd?psection=racingpost.co.uk&page=latest41

UDGE Jane Stickels, whose previous errors have earned her the nickname 'Calamity Jane', sparked uproar among the bookmaking fraternity on Monday, when calling the wrong winner of the 4.30pm at Lingfield and failing to spot her mistake until after the official 'weigh-in'.

The error, estimated by Coral to have cost the industry £2million, and by on-course layer Barry Dennis to have cost £7millon, meant most bookmakers paid out on both the official winner, 9-4 favourite Welsh Dragon, and actual winner Miss Dagger, a 14-1 shot ridden by 7lb claimer Kylie Manser.

While the betting ring was in chaos over the blunder, there were few, if any, mutterings of discontent among punters at the track as the judge's mistake proved a windfall for many of them who had backed the gambled-on favourite Welsh Dragon, who was erroneously announced the winner after a head-bobbing finish to the first division of the seven-furlong handicap.

Stickels, despite a previous catalogue of errors including a suspension from dutiesin 1999, has been back on the judges' roster for a few years, and has even recently been involved in training new judges.

Officially, all bets on Monday - and until such time as an official Jockey Club enquiry corrects the mistake - were settled on the"wrong result", although many bookmakers were quick to contact the Racing Post to announce a double payout, although for pool betting purposes Totesport had no option but to stick with the official winner.

In what amounted to a farcical situation, connections of Welsh Dragon received winning mementoes as the weighed-in announcement was made, but within seconds Stickels announced over the public address system the correction in Miss Dagger's favour.

The stewards immediately announced an inquiry and subsequently ordered a confidential report to be forwarded to the Jockey Club at Shaftesbury Avenue after interviewing Stickels and viewing the photo finish print.

The stewards' inquiry announced the corrected result under Rule 26 but confirmed that as the correction was not made before the official weighed-in, all bets stood on the original result.

Division one of the littlewoodspools.co.uk Handicap will be amended in due course to reflect the actual result.

Stipendiary steward Richard Westropp said:"Basically what has happened is the judge quickly called a result and that was the incorrect call, which was noted after the weighed-in notice was given. Under Rule 26, we corrected the judge's original call."

Andrew Balding, the trainer of Welsh Dragon, was phlegmatic about the incident and naturally delighted that the gamble on his favourite had been officially landed.

He said: "I thought at first we might have won but there was a flared nostril in it. It looked pretty close to me, and I was very disappointed when the result was amended. The weighed-in signal had been made after the result was announced in our favour, so I can't see how it can be changed. He is a horse who will win again."

In contrast, Miss Dagger's camp was far from happy in receiving the prize-money but not the betting booty.

Trainer John Best said: "My owners are up in arms because they backed her. One had £100 each-way, so the judge's mistake has cost him £2,000. I was surprised the result was announced before the horses got off the track as I thought it was close and Jamie Spencer on Welsh Dragon thought he was beaten, so we were concerned whether the result was right."

Some disgruntled backers of Miss Dagger who gathered around the weighing room were talking about taking legal advice against the Jockey Club and its official over the incident, a situation that does have a precedent of sorts.

On October 2004 at Pontefract, Harrycat was incorrectly called by the judge as third when it was in fact fifth. Betfair settled on what the judge should have called - Meneef as third - before the weigh-in was announced, but a punter who had backed Harrycat questioned Betfair's common sense approach, took the matter to the Independent Betting Arbitration Service, and won.

Jockey Club spokesman Paul Struthers said: "A report will be sent in from the stewards and there will be an internal procedure that we will follow to see if any action will be taken.

"There will be an internal review, much in the same way anyone who works for any company with internal procedures. It would be totally inappropriate to comment on what they might be."

wb

What an Unbelievable C*ck up.

I presume betfair made layers pay too

scojones

Was watching the race myself and it was so obvious she made a mistake. I called it in running before the photo.

Corben Dallas

Irish Racing.com and oddschekcer all had the winner as Welsh Dragon with JP Spencer onboard as winner!!!!! :O

sector

Must have been her that robbed me of Greenbelts win last week

ps he run again today, great form lines & i expect to see a win.