Paul Carberry was banned for 10 racing days at Naas yesterday after mistakingly believing he had a full circuit of the track left to race with the £20,000 Slaney Hurdle apparently at his mercy.
After the odds-on To Your Honour had fallen on the flat, Carberry had his mount Sallie's Girl travelling smoothly in the lead as their only danger Glazeaway was hard ridden to challenge in the straight.
However, Glazeaway's rider Conor O'Dwyer couldn't believe his luck as he surged past Sallie's Girl on which Carberry remained motionless all the way to the line. Sallie's Girl still only lost by three-quarters of a length.
Carberry and O'Dwyer held an animated discussion after pulling up but the embarrassed Carberry, second to Ruby Walsh in the jockeys table, had to face the music in a stewards' inquiry.
He told the inquiry that he thought he had another circuit to go, "got a bit confused," and apologised for his error. The stewards banned him for 10 days in Ireland (January 14th to February 4th) and ordered him to forfeit his riding fee.
Carberry will be free to ride Advocat in next Saturday's Ladbroke Hurdle and will return in time for Dorans Pride in the Hennessy Gold Cup. However, he will miss important engagements in the Irish Champion Hurdle and the Victor Chandler Chase at Ascot.
"I thought there was a circuit to go. I only realised different when we were coming to the line and I heard Des Scahill's course commentary," said a downcast Carberry.
O'Dwyer and Carberry had yelled to each other on the run in but O'Dwyer said he had "no doubts" that he had calculated correctly. "Paul started shouting and for a split second I was worried but I knew that you don't go around Naas three times in a race," he said.
