Racing: Last hurdle cleared in inquiry room

Solid Steal (inside) and Mount Sinai clear the last hurdle before their controversial slog to the finish of the Great Northern Hurdles. Photo / Supplied

This was an inquiry no one seemed to want to win.

Saturday's $85,000 Great Northern at Ellerslie was the biggest hurdle race of the year and if someone was keen to win it in the inquiry room it wasn't obvious. It was bizarre.

There was, however, one defining moment in the whole affair: when Judicial Control Authority Richard Seabroke announced Solid Steal, first across the finish, was being relegated behind runnerup Mount Sinai, Ann Browne and Paul Nelson locked themselves in an embrace in the inquiry room.

That might have looked appropriate if they were the winners in the inquiry, but they were the two combatants. Or meant to be.

When Solid Steal and Mount Sinai locked in battle from the 300m it was clear from the side-on live vision that Solid Steal took the other horse out a significant width before beating him by half a length.

Only the head-on vision would confirm the extent of the interference and when shown it, Mount Sinai's owner and trainer Ann Browne was not keen to protest.

"They're my cousins [Paul Nelson's wife Carol is the cousin]," said Browne.

For the sake of the betting public, clearly a protest had to be lodged and was going to stand a royal chance.

Exasperated and pushed for time, Auckland Racing Club racing manager Andrew Castles said: "Ann, they'll still be your cousins after the inquiry."

The protest was lodged and chief stipendiary steward on the day Alan Coles later confirmed if Ann Browne had not protested he would have.

The kissing cousins hardly attacked each other in the inquiry.

Paul Nelson's only comment was to challenge assistant stipendiary steward Warwick Robinson's evidence of how many horse widths Solid Steal moved Mount Sinai.

"You first said seven [widths] then you changed it to eight," said Nelson.

Robinson apologised, but had, in fact, originally said "seven or eight".

Ann Browne said simply: "At the end of a race like that it doesn't take much to stop a horse [momentum]."

Solid Steal's rider, Richard Eynon, was similarly low key in his evidence and it was left to Shelley Houston (Mount Sinai) to say the most.

"We bumped soon after the last [fence] then I got about a head [advantage] on the other horse. I felt we were going the better of the two at that moment."

On why she continued to ride with the whip: "We were taught at apprentice school that you got no points for stopping riding."

Later Houston said that despite continuing to use the whip she couldn't ride Mount Sinai out properly because Solid Steal was laying on her horse.

Richard Eynon probably didn't help his case by failing to make any obvious attempt to straighten Solid Steal and pull him away from the other horse.

On their performances in the inquiry room through the years Graeme Rogerson and Colin Jilllings could have won this inquiry with the fifth horse. This was a sedate inquiry and reversal compared with the 1993 Serpente-Majestic Blaze Great Northern Hurdles affair that went through the appeals process then the courts for so many years no one can remember who ended up with the race.

At the moment, we know it was Serpente because it was in Saturday's racebook.

Paul Nelson took the reversal like the trooper most jumps people are.

"In 25 years, I've only ever been in the [inquiry] room five times and two of those have been in the last week."

At Hastings last Saturday week, Nelson unsuccessfully protested against winner Spare A Fortune for his runnerup No Cash.

"Maybe we should all have to go to school when you get a trainer's licence to properly know how to handle yourself in the room."

In this case that probably would not have done Nelson a lot of good.

Asked how he would look back on this race, Nelson said: "I'll look back and think it felt good for a while."

GN HURDLES

* Drama aplenty after a tough Solid Steal-Mount Sinai finish.
* The JCA ruled Solid Steal had interfered with Mount Sinai sufficiently to warrant a change of placings.
* It was difficult to find fault with the ruling.