Colin Keane’s miscalculation of the British whip rules last week has, as expected, cost him a 14-day ban and the upcoming ride on the season’s star colt Field Of Gold in the Sussex Stakes.
Ireland’s champion jockey used his whip eight times when winning on Windlord for his Juddmonte employers at Sandown on Friday.
Although that would have been fine in Ireland, the eight strikes were two over the cross-channel limit, a blunder Keane immediately acknowledged as his own fault.
“I’m so used to eight as it is at home, I just have to abide by the rules here. That’s the only way I can put it. I know six is the amount over here but when I was in a ding-dong battle, I suppose it just went out of my head unfortunately. It’s unfortunate but it’s my own fault,” he admitted.
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The British Horseracing Authority’s whip review committee met on Tuesday and suspended the Irishman from July 22nd to August 4th. He was also fined £350 (€405). The ban also means Keane misses the King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot.
It’s a bitter blow for the six-time Irish champion jockey, who was appointed to the plum job of Juddmonte’s number one rider in Europe last month.
He quickly settled in with a superb success on Field Of Gold in the St James’s Palace Stakes at Royal Ascot, a performance that prompted Keane to describe the grey colt as the best he’s ridden. He also won May’s Irish 2,000 Guineas on Field Of Gold.
The John and Thady Gosden trained horse is as low as 4-7 in some betting lists to complete a Group One hat-trick in the Sussex Stakes at the end of the month.
Keane replaced Kieren Shoemark on Field Of Gold in the Irish Guineas following the horse’s controversial defeat in the Newmarket Guineas when a fast-finishing runner-up to Ruling Court.
