- Jamie Kah has copped a three-week horse racing ban
- The champion jockey was found guilty during a tribunal hearing
- Kah will miss a chunk of the Melbourne racing season as a result
Jamie Kah has been hit with a three-week suspension for her handling of Let’sfacethemusic during Group 3 McNeil Stakes in August.
Kah has been found guilty of failing to ride with sufficient vigour and purpose in the final stags of her race following a hearing conducted by the Victorian Racing Tribunal.
The ban comes into force at midnight on September 28.
It means Kah will be out of action for major meetings including Turnbull Stakes Day, Caulfield Guineas Day, Caulfield Cup Day and The Everest, but will be free to ride again on October 20.
In her ruling, Judge Kathryn Kings said the tribunal was ‘satisfied that between the 175m and approximately 50m mark there was sufficient gap and opportunity’ for the jockey to ride her mount with ‘vigour or purpose to improve’ her place in the race.
Racing Victoria steward Corie Waller added that it was a ‘blameworthy ride’, falling ‘well short of what would reasonably be expected of a rider in the same position’.
RV demanded a six-week ban but the tribunal accepted three.
Kah argued that she was concerned about the control she had on the horse, as it had locked its jaw.
Champion jockey Jamie Kah has copped a three-week ban from horse racing
Kah was found guilty during a tribunal hearing and will miss some of the racing season
‘Basically when a horse locks it’s jaw it pushes the bit to the back of his mouth. If you go to pull the horse away from heels, he’ll go the other way,’ she said.
‘You don’t have much control of the horse until the horse puts it’s head down again and relaxes.’
Kah also highlighted the extremely windy conditions on the day of the race, but it was deemed that she still had enough room to move between Stay Focused in third and Band of Brothers to improve her position.
Let’sfacethemusic ended up finishing fifth behind winner Growing Empire and Wonder Boy in second.
Kah’s lawyer argued that his client was an experienced jockey and that she had been seriously injured in a fall previously.
‘The very thing which landed her in ICU last year is a horse she lost control of because it had a locked jaw and she lost control,’ Stirling said.
‘She knows the dangers of a horse that she does not have the confidence will run gun barrel straight, you’re talking about young inexperienced horses here, it’s not Mr Brigthside, it’s not Anamoe, it’s not I’m Thunderstruck, it’s not Another Wil …
‘She might’ve hesitated, she might even have made an error of judgement because we all know now in retrospect the run stayed open.
‘Her instincts at the time she had that lack of confidence to take the run with this particular horse in these windy conditions … it is not culpable, it was safe and it was cautious.’
The charge comes after comes a horror run for Kah, that started with a shocking fall at Flemington in March that left her with a serious brain injury.
When she came out of an induced five-day coma, Kah didn’t know who she was and had to Google her name to find some information about herself.
The injury kept her out of racing for five months, and she only returned to the saddle in August.
Kah was also involved in a ‘white powder’ controversy after photos that appeared to show her rack up a line of a mysterious substance surfaced on social media in June.
The story broke just a day after she announced her return to racing.
