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Il Etait Temps survived a slip after jumping the last to land an incident-packed renewal of the Queen Mother Champion Chase on Wednesday, on an afternoon when the drama was not confined to the closing stages and Nico de Boinville, one of the sport’s top jockeys, was accused of “horrific” abuse before the start of the opening race by an Irish amateur having his first ride at the meeting.
De Boinville, who was riding the well-fancied Act Of Innocence, and Declan Queally, who is both the trainer and rider of the Grade One-winning I’ll Sort That, could be seen exchanging words as a tightly packed field of 21 runners jostled for position before the start of the Turners Novice Hurdle.
De Boinville also appeared to tell Queally to “get back” before turning his mount to take a spot on the rail where I’ll Sort That had been positioned. There was subsequently a false start, with Queally one of three riders held responsible by the stewards along with Jack Kennedy and Darragh O’Keeffe, and the race eventually got under way following a standing start, with Willie Mullins’ King Rasko Grey taking the spoils.
As he returned to weigh in afterwards, Queally told ITV Racing’s interviewer, Matt Chapman, that “the start was a bit of a mess and I got trapped back further than I wanted,” before adding: “Being abused by an English rider, Nico de Boinville, is not very nice. I’m an amateur, I’m coming over here riding in front of my kids and that, horrific.” Interviewed shortly afterwards, De Boinville was asked about Queally’s comments on the start, and suggested that “maybe he should look in the mirror”.
A statement from the British Horseracing Authority later in the afternoon said that the stewards had opened an inquiry into the incident at the start following a complaint from Queally.
“Having heard the initial evidence from Queally and De Boinville,” the statement added, “[the stewards] have adjourned the matter to obtain further evidence.”
The Turners Novice Hurdle was not the only race on the day where the starting procedures came under scrutiny, as a number of riders were reported to have been unhappy with the start of the 24-runner BetMGM Cup Handicap Hurdle.
Chapman reported that Mark Walsh, the rider of 10-1 shot Kopeck De Mee, had complained that “they let them go when we weren’t ready, it’s just a joke,” while Kennedy, who rode Farren Glory, suggested that “there are too many runners, it’s too tight and we’re being packed together.”
There will now be close scrutiny of the starts of the meeting’s hurdle events in particular over the next two days, as many of the races on Thursday and Friday have attracted maximum fields.
There are 22 runners in the Mares’ Novice Hurdle, the opening race on Thursday, and 24 in both the Pertemps Final Handicap Hurdle and the Fulke Walwyn Kim Muir Amateur Jockeys’ Handicap Chase, the sixth and seventh races on the card.
There were no issues with the start of the 10-runner Champion Chase, but it became apparent just after halfway that Willie Mullins’Majborough, the 5-6 favourite, had lost confidence in his jumping after a slip at the eighth.
It was close to a re-run of last year’s Arkle Trophy, when Majborough set off at odds-on but blundered away his chance two out, and as he dropped away to finish seventh, it was his stable companion, Il Etait Temps, that emerged to take control between the final two fences.
His slip over the last might have been enough to unseat some jockeys, but Paul Townend sat tight to complete a double for the yard in the feature events on the first two days of the meeting, following Lossiemouth’s success in Tuesday’s Champion Hurdle.
Il Etait Temps’s last trip to a racecourse had seen him suffer a tired fall at the second last at Ascot, when already out of contention for the Clarence House Chase, so it was another fine training performance by Mullins to get him ready to win a championship event just a few weeks later.
“I thought Paul was very brave on him because he couldn’t go the pace they were setting for the first mile,” Mullins said. “He sat and sat, and coming down the hill we could all see that the further he was going, the better he was going.
“I nearly had a heart attack at the last fence though, but the horse has come to himself at last.
“Majborough was going so well at home, but then he made that first little error, then the second one and it’s hard. He makes life hard for himself. We will have to wait and see. Hopefully there is a big one in him one day.”
