Racing: Gibbs furious at Railway ruling

Matamata trainer Jim Gibbs is livid his smart galloper Devoted was wiped out of the placings when badly checked in $200,000 Railway Handicap on Saturday.

He was so annoyed that he asked for an official explanation from Judicial Control Authority members at Ellerslie on Monday.

He was unsatisfied with the outcome and then on three separate occasions asked chief stipendiary steward Noel McCutcheon to show the video replay of the incident in which Michael Walker caused serious interference to Bois, who in turn was thrown out onto Devoted.

Devoted finished sixth and Auckland Cup winning rider Mark Du Plessis was adamant he should have been second.

"I've got a bill here for $2000 to start in the Railway. The stakemoney for second is $40,000, I've ended up with nothing and a $2000 bill - I don't want to pay it."

What upsets Gibbs most is that he has twice ended up on the wrong side of similar incidents.

"I had a good horse called Foromor going for his fourth win on end in a PQ race here at Ellerslie. Matthew Williamson caused interference in the home straight - nothing as serious as what Michael Walker did - and he got disqualified from the race.

"Then Vinaka lost the group one Sires Produce at Manawatu for minimal interference at best, which is still one of the worst decisions I've seen in racing.

"Then my horse gets completely wiped out in one of only two group one 1200m races in a year and I get no result.

"I'm not asking for special treatment, just a fair go.

"I race a lot of horses here at Ellerslie."

For Walker's part he thought the month-long suspension was too long, especially as it will cost him any chance of riding at the lucrative Wellington Cup carnival.

"I'm disappointed with that, I don't feel I deserve that length of suspension," said Walker.

That statement only upset Gibbs further.

"He's upset - I paid $2000 to get into a race from which I got nothing but a lame horse walking around a paddock at home.

"He doesn't know what upset is.

"He's very lucky he didn't get landed with reckless riding, and you can quote me on that!"

* Sir Patrick Hogan has been devastated by an accident which has left one of his valuable fillies severely injured.

Sir Patrick will begin litigation against a Queensland horse floating company after the Keepers-Forever Dancing filly had a front foot torn off on the road when it fell through the floor of the float taking her from Brisbane Airport to the Magic Millions sales complex on Monday.

An angry Hogan said the filly, owned by himself in partnership with Sir Michael Fay, is in serious danger.

"She has the leg in plaster, which we will have to have removed to assess what her future is, if she has one."

A motorist following the float on the Brisbane-Gold Coast highway stopped the float when he saw the filly's leg dragging on the ground.

"My vet, Ivan Bridges, said this filly and the others in the draft, had travelled well and were not playing up in the float at the time," said Sir Patrick.

"She has lost the hoof to the pedal bone, she has lost all the hair and skin to the bone on the pastern.

"She has lost 50 per cent of the ligaments down the cannon bone and she had metal and grit embedded in the fetlock joint.

"She has lost the opportunity to be a racehorse, has lost the opportunity to promote her sire Keepers and may have lost the potential to be a broodmare.

"I am not upset about the financial loss, but I am very, very upset for the filly herself - imagine what she went through.

"The staff that looked after her at home are also extremely upset."

And yet, Sir Patrick said, it could have even been a lot worse.

"To get her off the float they had to unload three other valuable fillies on the side of the highway with no opportunity to stop the traffic.

"With traffic screaming by unbroken yearling fillies, imagine the potential for disaster that created.

"I'm just very pleased I wasn't there."