'Trapped' tail causes stir but jockey backs Wolverhampton stewards

Jockey Dylan Hogan said stewards at Wolverhampton were right to rule that his mount Red Invader had refused to race despite the nine-year-old appearing to catch his tail in the back of the starting stalls before the gates opened.

The incident before the 5f handicap on Friday evening attracted widespread attention on social media, with many claiming the official result was unfair because the 14-1 shot, trained by John Butler, was stuck and appeared distressed.

BoyleSports and Sky Bet were among the bookmakers to refund punters who had backed Red Invader.

Hogan said on Saturday: "Everything was straightforward. He's an old horse and to be honest I think people are making a mountain out of a molehill about it.

"If a horse doesn't want to go into the stalls, the first thing the stalls handlers do is grab their tail and it doesn't seem to stop any other horses. I don't think his tail was trapped."

On claims the horse was in discomfort, Hogan said: "That's stupid. I don't think there's anything to it. The horse refused to race. I think it's nothing."

Wolverhampton: held racing on Friday eveningCredit: Nathan Stirk

Butler, who was not at the track, said: "I saw pictures of it this morning and the owner has been on to me this morning that he saw pictures of it; but I wasn't there and all I know is I was watching it on TV and he refused to race.

"He's never refused before and the tail was in the back of the gates, but whether it stopped him from jumping I don't know.

"I'm not pointing a finger at anyone but it is a strange one. I'll leave it up to the owners to see what they want to do."

Red Invader was having his first start for the Twenty 19 syndicate. Chris Seeney, who manages the syndicate, said: "We've only had Red for a month, so the last month has been completely wasted training him and everything else.

"We trained him for that race, so now we'll have to wait a few weeks before a stalls test comes up; so it's more time wasted. It's frustrating but then nobody ever said it was going to be easy.

"The excitement of all of it before the race was such an amazing thing, then it was as flat as a pancake before anything had even happened. Will it put us off? No. Will it make us more nervous next time he runs? Possibly."

While Friday was the first occasion Red Invader technically refused to race he was given an in-running comment of slowly into stride, very slowly away, started slowly or awkward start on five of his previous seven appearances.

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