Decision by Racing Commission delivered after nine months
KINGSTON, Jamaica - The appeal filed by the owner of Miniature Man, Elizabeth DaCosta, against the ruling of the placing judges of a dead heat result involving her horse and Further and Beyond in race number nine on May 8, 2021, has been dismissed.
The appeal by DaCosta lodged on May 10, 2021, was dismissed by the First Instance Tribunal (FIT) of the regulatory arm of horse racing, the Jamaica Racing Commission.
DaCosta has since the ruling of the FIT to maintain the dead heat result, lodged an appeal against the ruling of the FIT.
In a lengthy document on its ruling made public yesterday, the FIT stated in part that it finds it was reasonable for the placing judge to conclude that it was a dead heat as he could not separate the horses, and is of the opinion that Rule 53 operates as an immediate order operating on the race day and the decision of the judge, once it is made official, is final.
Rule 53 states:
“The Judge shall occupy the Judges box at the time the horses pass the winning post. He shall announce his decision immediately or after considering the photograph and shall determine the winner according to that part of the horse’s head, excluding the ears, which first reaches the perpendicular plane of the near edge of the winning post provided that the complete body of the horse passes the winning post with the rider in the saddle, and shall determine the remaining placings in a similar manner. Such decision shall be final unless an objection to the winner or any placed horses is made and sustained; provided that this Rule shall not prevent a Judge from correcting any mistake, after receiving permission to do so from the Stewards. But no correction shall be permitted after the official signal is displayed.”
Lawyers on behalf of DaCosta submitted in part that:
“The decision of the Judge was not reviewed and adjudicated on by the Stewards, and the Judge did not request the Stewards’ permission to correct his decision.
That the public, including Mrs DaCosta and trainer Jason DaCosta, were given no chance by the promoting company (SVREL – Supreme Ventures Racing and Entertainment Limited) to view the photograph being considered by the Judge prior to the ‘official signal’, and could not therefore enter an objection under Rule 53 or any other rule.
That Mrs DaCosta lodged an appeal against the decision of the Photo Finish Judge and/or SVREL in relation to the dead heat.
That is relation to Rule 53, that the Judge wrongly and in breach of Rule 53 unlawfully exercised the power to declare a dead heat by failing to rely solely on the photographic evidence, which identified horse Number 4 Miniature Man as the only horse with its nose on the line and also showed on the mirror image that horse Number 5’s (Further and Beyond) nose was behind the nose of Horse Number 4.”
The members of the FIT who heard the appeal were Professor Kent Pantry, QC, George McPherson, Clifford Williams, Dr Paul Turner, and Dr Michael Coore.
