'The IHRB was not fit for purpose on the day' - Twomey fumes as appeal lodged

The Rosscarbery saga is by no means over after Paddy Twomey confirmed an appeal has been lodged to the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) following her disqualification from third place in last Sunday's Pretty Polly Stakes.

Connections were deprived of €27,000 in prize-money and invaluable black type on her page after Rosscarbery, who was supplemented for the Group 1 at a cost of €30,000, was thrown out due to Wayne Lordan weighing in 5lb light afterwards.

Twomey, who won the race with La Petite Coco, is adamant that it was down to an error from the clerk of the scales at the Curragh.

Twomey said: "The deadline for lodging an appeal against what happened was 5pm on Tuesday so my solicitor has lodged an appeal. If we are to have any chance of being reinstated in third place, where I think we rightfully belong, the only way of doing that is through the appeal process."

Rosscarbery (orange): was disqualified after finishing third in the Pretty Polly StakesCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

He added: "It's an error on the part of the IHRB, basically they were not fit for purpose on the day. They null and voided the horse's chance from the minute I picked the saddle up from the jockey after the clerk of the scales okayed him to go. The filly's race was over. She never really ran after that.

"Whether the clerk of the scales made the error himself or the computer made it is irrelevant. It's an employee of the IHRB who has made the mistake."

Twomey thinks the current system needs to change to avoid more mistakes being made.

He said: "It looks a very archaic system where it's coming up in stones and pounds on the racecard which is an obsolete system. We should have a metric system. When he's weighing out the jockey, it comes up in pounds only so there is loads of room for error when a human being is there and it's 9st 12lb and it's coming up 138.1 pounds on the scales.

"It should be in kilos and the scales would reflect that in kilos. We live in 2022 in Europe, we have a metric system for weighing things and I think the IHRB is operating in a bygone age."

'A thorough investigation is ongoing'

Niall Cronin, communications manager for the IHRB, said an internal investigation into the matter was ongoing.

Cronin said on Wednesday: "The appeal was lodged yesterday by Mr Twomey on the decision of the stewards to disqualify Rosscarbery from the Pretty Polly. On Sunday, the stewards disqualified the horse but they also referred the matter on for further investigation.

"A thorough investigation of the circumstances surrounding the disqualification of Rosscarbery began immediately and is ongoing."

When asked whether the system in use is fit for purpose, Cronin replied: "The scales system we use would be comparable to the most modern scales used in all racing jurisdictions. It's a bespoke system that was only introduced in 2019."

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