- Jamie Kah has been charged by Racing Victoria stewards
- Jockey faces a potentially significant suspension
- She must now prove her innocence at tribunal hearing
Champion Aussie jockey Jamie Kah has been charged with a serious offence by Racing Victoria stewards after a lengthy inquiry into a race at Caulfield earlier this year.
The 28-year-old was charged with failing to push for the best result while racing last month.
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.
‘Between approximately the 175m and approximately the 100m, Ms Kah failed to ride her mount with sufficient vigour or purpose to improve her position between Band Of Brothers and Stay Focused where there was sufficient room and when it was reasonable and permissible to do so,’ the charge on Monday read.
‘And/or: Over approximately the final 75m, Ms Kah failed to ride her mount with sufficient vigour when it was reasonable and permissible to do so.’
The golden girl jockey, who will now face a Racing Victoria tribunal, admitted she didn’t have a great race.
‘I just didn’t feel like I rode that well,’ Kah explained to Stewards.
Jamie Kah has been charged with a serious offence by Racing Victoria stewards
Kah was charged with failing to push for the best result while racing last month
‘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.
