Weight out of sync Don Kwesi’s disqualification creates buzz at Caymanas Park

DESPITE a stunning upset by 22-1 longshot THE GIFTED ONE, Saturday’s Reggae 6 returned a modest $26,005 to winning tickets, sending a $6.16 million single-winner bonus to this weekend’s Saturday-Sunday dual meet.

Four favourites - KP CHOICE, I REALISE, I LOVE BIRDIE and MO PAI - were Reggae 6 winners on an 11-race programme later impacted by the disqualification of DON KWESI in the Poorlittlerichgirl feature event for open-allowance runners.

CLAIMING rider Jaheim Anderson and the connections of DON KWESI - a four-year-old whose improvement at the back end of last season and current form make him, undeniably, the most improved local-bred in training - will have a lot of explaining to do when they face the stewards of the Jamaica Racing Commission (JRC) this week.

Stunned by Stewards’ enquiry

Punters awaiting to cash their winning tickets on DON KWESI were stunned to hear a stewards’ enquiry being announced in a cleanly run race, an event in which the winner at no point in time had caused any form of interference requiring the officials’ intervention.

DON KWESI wired 3-5 favourite RUN JULIE RUN and four other rivals, beating SENSATIONAL SOUL by 10 and a half lengths, making all at seven and a half furlongs, registering what was thought to be his fourth win this season and eighth from 19 career starts.

To the dismay of bettors, second-past-the-post SENSATIONAL SOUL was awarded the race and DON KWESI disqualified, placed out of the race for breach of Rule 217 (2), claiming rider Jaheim Anderson returning underweight at 117lb, after weighing out to ride at 119lb, inclusive of bodyweight and equipment carried by his mount.

Rule 217 (2) of the JRC points to automatic disqualification should a rider return 0.5 kilos (one pound) under what they had weighed out.

Mind-boggling

Anderson returning all of two pounds underweight was a mind-boggling development, considering his bodyweight, weighing out and weighing in, remained constant at 47.0 kilos, the equivalent of 104lb, meaning two pounds of equipment, lead pieces placed in saddle pouches to add weight for lighter riders, was unaccounted for at weigh-in after being recorded at weigh-out.

Weight carried by horses is the bedrock of thoroughbred racing, predominantly one of the main factors punters use to determine which horse to wager on, along with pedigree, choice of rider, preferred running style, race distance, and fitness based on current form and exercise gallops.

In 2018, jockey Prince Holder was slapped with a 25-day ban by the JRC’s stewards following the disqualification of his mount, LEEKOUT, who had easily won the 11th race on May 5.

Similar to Anderson, Holder had weighed in one kilogramme less than what he had weighed out prior to the start of the race. Holder returned to the winner’s enclosure weighing 54 kilos, or 119 pounds, two pounds short of the original 55 kilos, or 121 pounds.

However, unlike Anderson, Holder’s bodyweight at the time of weighing out was 49.5 kilos, or 109 pounds, but came back at 48 kilos, or 107 pounds, on the scale at the winners’ enclosure.