© Racing.com
Trainer explains Rockhampton mix-up
By Andrew Eddy
A Rockhampton trainer will throw herself at the mercy of Queensland’s racing stewards after conceding an innocent mistake led to Australia’s latest ring-in scandal.
Julieann Lancaster will again front stewards in an inquiry over the next few days after it was discovered that her eight-year-old gelding Plain ‘N’ Simple ran in a local race on Thursday instead of seven-year-old gelding Authadane.
Lancaster, who has been training since 2014, explained on Friday that instead of the switched horses being some sort of scandal, the mix-up was an innocent one.
“It was actually my fault,” she said on Friday. “I saddled the wrong horse. They are both bay geldings.
“I just had four consecutive (races) in a row and I had a few things happen at home too and so I was just not thinking and just put the saddle on the wrong horse.”
Stewards disqualified Authadane’s sixth placing as the horse didn’t actually start in Race 6 and then they declared Plain ‘N’ Simple a late scratching from Race 7 as he’d already gone around in the previous race under Authadane’s name.
Lancaster, who has trained 37 winners across her career, said she is expecting to receive a penalty when stewards resume the inquiry but was hoping that it was not too harsh.
“I’ll be in trouble, I realise that,” she said. “But it was one of those things. It was an honest mistake.
“It happens. We are only human.”
This article first appeared on Racing.com and is reprinted here with their kind permission. To find out more about Racing Victoria’s Off the Track program, visit rv.racing.com/the-horse/off-the-track.
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