Group 1-winning rider fined after falling asleep and missing pre-race parade

Tyler Schiller was fined by stewards at Rosehill on Saturday after he failed to make the pre-race parade for the Maurice McCarten Stakes – because he was asleep in the jockeys' room. 

Schiller, who didn't have a ride in the previous race, had fallen asleep, leaving connections of the Jerome Hunter-trained Rich Fortune baffled as to the whereabouts of their rider. 

"I was just going in there to sit on something and I had a lay down but I wasn't expecting to fall asleep," Schiller told stewards. "It's been a long week." 

The rider was woken up by an official five minutes before the race was scheduled to start. 

His intended mount was well backed, but after arriving late at the start failed to beat a rival home in the nine-runner field. 

"Can you see where it sits in respect to your professionalism," acting chief steward Tom Moxon told Schiller during an inquiry. 

"You're riding on a feature day, Group 3 race, connections have booked a Group 1-winning rider and there you are fast asleep five minutes before a race. It doesn't paint yourself in a good light in regard to your professionalism." 

Schiller pleaded guilty to "failing to present himself in the mounting yard in a timely manner" and stewards issued a $500 (£258/€302) fine.

Just seven days earlier, Schiller had ridden the second Group 1 winner of his career on Lady Laguna in the Canterbury Stakes at Randwick, having landed the Galaxy on Mariamia last year. 

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