Champion jockey Jamie Kah plans to enter a not guilty plea at the Victorian Racing Tribunal on Thursday concerning a charge related to her performance in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes last month.
The 28-year-old was charged with failing to push for the best result while racing last month.
Racing Victoria stewards have accused Kah of not taking ‘all reasonable and permissible measures’ on the horse Let’sfacethemusic ‘to win or obtain the best possible place in the field.’
The rule states: ‘A rider must take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure that the rider’s horse is given full opportunity to win or to obtain the best possible place in the field.’
Stewards looked into her ride aboard Let’sfacethemusic in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes at Caulfield on August 31 and found that she didn’t accelerate through a gap.
During a directions hearing at the VRT on Thursday, Kah was represented by barrister Matthew Stirling alongside the stewards.
Jamie Kah has been charged with a serious offence by Racing Victoria stewards
Stirling suggested that Kah’s defense will focus on the challenging windy conditions on the day of the race, as well as Let’sfacethemusic’s particular racing behavior, describing the horse as ‘somewhat of an equine retch’ with a tendency to ‘lock its jaw.’
‘What that means is the jockey can steer one way and the horse will go the other way,’ Stirling said.
‘You can see that this exact thing happens in this race footage on the stewards’ footage at the 900m mark. The horse veers in when Ms Kah is going the other way.
‘On this day the conditions were extremely windy. The two horses in front were shifting ground continually … Ms Kah’s horse was also shifting ground.’
Stirling said that Kah was feeling unwell on the day and was also suffering from a lack of confidence.
‘Her instincts told her not to take the run, it wasn’t safe to take the run,’ Stirling said.
‘In retrospect, because we now know, but only in retrospect, there were a couple of stages where the horses in front remained true on their line and Ms Kah’s remained true on its line.
‘It might have been an error, but that’s not what the rule is about … the rule requires serious culpability.
‘If they (stewards) can establish an error of judgment, it’s not enough to make out the charge.’
Kah was charged with failing to push for the best result while racing last month
The golden girl jockey admitted she didn’t have a great race.
‘I just didn’t feel like I rode that well,’ Kah explained to Stewards.
‘I saw (the gap) moving in front of me and I don’t know, I didn’t feel comfortable taking the run.
‘I don’t take runs that aren’t there and at the point in the race, I didn’t feel like there was a run there for long enough to take.’
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.
The emergence of the controversial images cast a shadow over Kah’s highly anticipated return to horse racing.
Kah had a a shocking fall at Flemington in March 2023 that left her with a brain injury
Stewards initially charged her and another woman over the photos, alleging they broke the rule that states ‘a person must not engage in conduct prejudicial to the image, interests, integrity, or welfare of racing, whether or not that conduct takes place within a racecourse or elsewhere’.
‘I am working hard to get back to doing what I love, and that is being a passionate and successful jockey,’ said Kah afterwards.
‘I will continue to focus on my physical and mental health and making a full recovery so I can return to racing and be the best person that I can possibly be.’
Kah was later cleared of any wrongdoing in the white powder scandal and vowed afterwards to focus on racing and being happy.
‘It’s been the most challenging and testing year but I’m so relieved that I can put it behind me now and focus on racing and being happy,’ Kah told RaceNet.
