Riverton RC 21 April 2025 – R3 – Ainsley McLeod

BACKGROUND

Following the running of Race 3, Class B Trainer Ainsley McLeod was charged with a breach of Rule 404(2), the details of the alleged breach being that she “presented the wrong horse to race when presenting ALBY PARK instead of HIGH STEP.”

The relevant section of Rule 404(2) states:

A person shall not… start or intend to start a horse in a Race or Trial… under a name other than its registered name.

At the start of the hearing, Ms McLeod confirmed her admission of the breach and that she understood the Rule and the nature of the charge.

EVIDENCE

The Respondent is the Registered Trainer of HIGH STEP, which was entered to run in Race 3 at the Riverton Racing Club’s meeting on 21 April 2025, and ALBY PARK, which was entered to run in Race 4 at the same meeting.

Senior Stipendiary Steward Brady Jones said that prior to Race 3, the McLeod stable runner was presented at the plate inspection area where the brands were checked and found to be incorrect. It was discovered that the horse was not HIGH STEP, but her stablemate ALBY PARK.

Mr Jones said ALBY PARK was sent back to the stable area, and the correct horse, HIGH STEP, was saddled and presented to race. He added that the error did not cause a delay to the start time of the race.

Ms McLeod accepted it was an error on the part of her stable. With four runners in the first four races, she had not been able to personally oversee the early stages of preparing HIGH STEP for Race 3. She said this was left to a trusted stablehand, which was when the mistake occurred.

“We were obviously working very swiftly,” Ms McLeod said. “The saddle was quite late out and I arrived at the stables to see a horse already with a tongue tie on (part of the gear worn by HIGH STEP)… I didn’t take the time to check the brands and my very experienced stablehand had already started preparing the horse I thought was HIGH STEP. And so we proceeded to saddle the wrong horse.”

Both HIGH STEP and ALBY PARK were bay horses that looked very similar, she added.

DECISION

As Ms McLeod has admitted the breach, it is found to be proved.

SUBMISSIONS FOR PENALTY

Stewards advised that the Respondent’s record was entirely clear. Mr Jones said her admission of the breach and candour about the circumstances that led to it were to her credit.

The starting point in the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Penalty Guide for a breach of r 404(2) is a fine of $800, Mr Jones said. He referred to a previous breach last October 18, in which Trainer Lee Callaway was fined $500 in similar circumstances.

Other breaches of this Rule which attracted fines larger than $500 had involved more complicated examples of mistaken identity, Mr Jones said. In this case, the correct horses had been brought to the track and, because of a straightforward error, one of them had been wrongly presented to race.

Given the similarities to the Callaway case, Mr Jones believed a fine of $500 was appropriate.

In her submission on penalty, Ms McLeod pointed out that she had been training for some 13 months and this was the first time she had been charged with any breach of the Rules. She asked for a reduction to the starting point to reflect this, and the fact that an honest mistake had been made during a rushed period of raceday commitments.

REASONS FOR PENALTY

The Callaway case referred to by Stewards as the closest comparison to this breach is a helpful precedent. The circumstances are strikingly similar; reliance by the Respondent on an experienced stablehand due to other commitments, prompt detection of the error which meant it did not cause a delay to the start of the race, an admission of the breach, and a clear record under the Rule.

As expressed in the Callaway Decision, having no previous breaches of this Rule is to be expected, given the rarity of Licenced Trainers being charged. However, it is a credit to Ms McLeod, that since taking up training, she has not appeared before an Adjudicative Committee on any matter.

In Callaway, the mitigating factors described above saw the Penalty Guide starting point of an $800 fine reduced to a $500 fine. That is where this penalty should fairly land. The mistake was detected as part of the process of pre-race checks, the horses concerned were correctly resaddled, the incident caused no delay to the start of Race 3, and no parties were disadvantaged.

CONCLUSION

Trainer Ainsley McLeod is fined $500.