Trainer anger as false-start farce leaves Goodwood runners 'drunk on their legs'

Veteran trainer Milton Bradley and his Newmarket counterpart Stuart Williams have called on the BHA to review its false-start procedures in the wake of Saturday's controversial veterans' handicap at Goodwood, which ended with three of the six runners "drunk on their legs".

That was the view of octogenarian Bradley, whose Englishman was among three runners found to be suffering from post-race ataxia – a syndrome characterised by loss of balance in walking following exercise – after the race had to be stopped and restarted following a false start.

Englishman finished fifth in the six-furlong contest, two places behind the Williams-trained Shamshon, while Upavon was last of the six runners for Tony Carroll.

The field for the veterans' sprint had to be recalled after Zac Brown, who was subsequently withdrawn, was judged to have broken early and caused a false start.

Vets assessed the runners after they were called back and they were all deemed fit to race, but Englishman, Shamshon and Upavon suffered post-race problems, while the winner Paddy Power bled.

"I'm a bit sick after yesterday's race," said Bradley on Sunday.

"It was terrible what went on. Those sprinters are full of flying and the jockeys would have had a job to stop them.

"Three of them were dehydrated afterwards, drunk on their legs. Our horse seems all right now, but when sprinters like that get out well and are running, it's a total farce to stop them. Our horse was geed up after that and the jockey [Pat Cosgrave] said he couldn't hold him.

"He never wins if he goes to the front, but the jockey couldn't hold him, so let him go and then he stops. I think it was another real farce job. I think they were dead wrong."

Like Bradley, Williams believes the race should have been allowed to continue first time round and then action taken against Zac Brown if he had transgressed.

"It's difficult. I think the rules were applied correctly and I'm not complaining about anybody doing their job, I just question whether the rules are right in the case where there are aged sprinters involved," he said.

"It's very hard to pull them up once they've gone a furlong. In this case probably the best thing to do was let the race be run and then decide if they thought Zac Brown had pushed the gate open afterwards. Either void the race or void him – deem him a non-runner."

Goodwood: the scene of Saturday's controversial raceCredit: Alan Crowhurst (Getty Images)

Williams, who started training in 1994 and is a former president of the National Trainers Federation, added: "The jockeys can have a say, but it's unfair to put it on them. We can withdraw at any time, radio the starter and say we don't want to run, but it's difficult. I wasn't there yesterday and the owner of Shamshon wasn't there.

"It's a difficult decision for the staff I had there to make on their own, but it's not acceptable for four of the six horses who ran in that race to be ill after.

"That's not fair on the horses. Ataxia is basically like cramp. When footballers run too much and get cramp in extra-time they've trained for 90 minutes and end up doing 120, so they get cramp – it's exactly like that.

"My horse seems fine this morning. We had a plan to run him in the Dash at Epsom on Saturday, but after yesterday that's out of the window as I've had to give him some Bute [anti-inflammatory medication], so he can't run anywhere. We've wasted an entry, which wasn't cheap."

Williams had sympathy for all involved, but stressed the importance of horse welfare.

"The rules are there and were applied correctly, but need looking at again to see if we could do anything differently," he added. "I think it's unfair on the horses and when four of the six are ill after the race, that's not what we want to be doing – it's not what I'm in the game for.

"It's not about whether I thought we'd have won – that's irrelevant – but I'd rather that they had run the race first time and then voided it, which isn't ideal, but it's better than putting the horses in a position where they're going to be ill after the race."

In response, a BHA spokesperson said on Sunday: "We will be looking at the circumstances of the false start from Goodwood as part of the usual wash-up procedure for incidents like this and will include any feedback from trainers in those discussions."

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