Horses disqualified, owners keep prize money

Racing Victoria has disqualified the 29 horses that Wiremu Pinn rode with an incorrect weight, but the connections of those horses will get to keep the prize money.

RV Stewards ordered an inquiry after an audit established Pinn rode with an incorrect claim when he first came across from New Zealand to be based with Michael Kent at Cranbourne.

A miscommunication between RV and New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing led to what NZTR believed was a list of Pinn’s wins in New Zealand being sent to RV.

RV licensing officials accepted that list as complete and allocated Pinn a 3kg claim.

However, the inquiry ultimately found Pinn had been wrongly allocated a claim of 3kg at five metropolitan race meetings in the period in question.

It also found that at no stage had Pinn sought to mislead officials in the process of transferring his apprenticeship from New Zealand to Victoria.

Pinn rode 29 starters at those meetings – including five winners – with 25 of them earning prizemoney courtesy of a top 10 finish.

Given the findings of the audit on June 13, RV Stewards used their discretionary power under the rules that if an apprentice rides in a race where the weight has been adjusted by an allowance, and that allowance is wrong, then Stewards may disqualify them from the race.

As disqualification was not mandatory, Stewards wrote to connections of the 29 horses involved to make written submissions and show cause why their horses should not be disqualified.

Having considered the facts and submissions, Stewards ruled the 29 horses should be disqualified as Pinn had ridden with an incorrect allowance.

As the Stewards had elected to disqualify the 29 horses, it was then up to the RV Board to determine whether it would seek monies paid out be returned.

As the error was not made by Pinn, nor the owners or trainers of the 29 horses who had acted in good faith in booking the apprentice, the RV Board determined it would not seek repayment of prize money.

The RV Board noted the error was made without ill intent and apologises, on behalf of RV, to the affected parties for any distress that the unique situation had occurred.

The Board also noted that RV Management had commenced a review of the relevant systems and processes to ensure this error will be avoided in future.