Jockey Sean Fox has denied deliberately jumping off market drifter Ice Saint at Fontwell yesterday and plans to appeal against the 21-day ban imposed on him by the stewards.
The rider was suspended found him after the stewards found him in breach of rule 157, which states it is an offence for a jockey to fail to take all reasonable measures to obtain the best possible placing with the intention of concealing the true ability of the horse or affecting the result of the race , in that he had stepped off his horse.
The horse opened at 2-1 on course and drifted to a starting price of 4-1 before the Cantor Sport Beginners' Chase and a newspaper this morning claimed they were told the horse would not win in an anonymous phone call before the race.
An on-course bookmaker also claimed to have been tipped off about the result, but Fox has denied any wrongdoing.
He told BBC Radio: "That's a load of nonsense. I have been offered no money to jump off and if I was offered money, I would want my head read to jump off a horse at 25, 35 miles an hour over a fence.
"I have never, ever, ever tried to stop a horse, let alone jump off a horse and there have never been any allegations against me before. Bookmakers - I don't how they operate or anything so I don't know why he said that. I wouldn't know how to stop a horse."
Filed by James McMahon
