The punters in Kempton were left furious on Wednesday after 8-1 shot The Princes Poet was allowed to keep his victory despite 'carnage' clearly affecting the start of the race.
And those who backed Gold Medal had every right to be angry, after the horse was blatantly impeded by Vape as the six-furlong dash got underway. With apprentice jockey Aidan Keeley aboard, Vape came out of the gates and pulled over to the left, colliding with four other horses and knocking them all out of their stride.
Gold Medal, ridden by Finley Marsh, did manage to recover well and ended up just yards off the winner in third. But undoubtedly, he would have strongly pressed for victory had he not been scuppered at the start.
Racing TV pundit Steve Mellish ripped into the decision to allow the outcome to stand, saying: "If the collision happened two furlongs out we wouldn't even be talking about whether he got the race. He undeniably lost more ground than he was beaten by.
He also implied that officials had undermined the integrity of horse racing: "It's not right," he continued. "It's ridiculous there's no stewards' [enquiry], it doesn't do much for your confidence in the system."
The British Horseracing Authority stewards' report explained: "Leaving the stalls, Vape, drawn six, ducked sharply left-handed when the rider, upon removing the blindfold did not have both hands on the reins, interfering with Rattling, drawn eight, Porfin (IRE), drawn nine and Gold Medal, drawn 11, taking them notably off their intended lines."
The statement concluded with "After viewing a recording of the incident, it was found that no riding offence was involved and it had not improved the placing of Vape," but viewers were left unimpressed.
On Twitter, Rory Flanagan said: "British stewarding is a blight on the sport, globally," while @inglisdrev82 joked: "Stewards must be on an all you can drink deal at Wetherspoons and need to get in as quick as possible."
@DougMacbeth underlined how the ruling, or lack of, penalised punters by explaining: "A Porfin 'place' would have added £300 to my return, a win, much more. Until I saw this, I just accepted the loss, now I'm raging."
