McCoy to appeal against Bangor ban
Saturday, 11 September 2004 13:09Tony McCoy is to appeal against the 10-day ban he received at Bangor for failing to ride out for third place. The champion jump jockey was deemed to have dropped his hands on Batten Down (7-2) in the cantorsport.co.uk Novices' Handicap Chase yesterday.
He had been hard at work on the six-year-old in the final mile but was held after taking the final fence and when McCoy eased up he was beaten a short head for third by the Tom Scudamore-ridden Finzi.
"I am definitely going to appeal. In this instance I think it's in the best interests of racing that a jockey goes out and that he makes sure he brings the owner's horse back in one piece and that is what I was trying to do," McCoy told Channel 4.
"When I pulled up I got off the horse and led him back up to the enclosure because I wasn't happy with him. When you get off a horse after the winning post there's always a vet there and one did ask me what I thought and I said I thought he was sore."
"I didn't report that to the stewards and I was wrong in not doing that. I felt I wasn't happy with the horse. From the last fence I was barely moving on him at all. I was just trying to hang on to the best possible position."
After the race, Batten Down was found to have broken a blood vessel.
Filed by Katie Byrne
