EMOTIONS RUN HIGH AS OAKFIELD TWILIGHT GETS THE RACE AFTER PROTEST AGAINST SWANSTON IS UPHELD

By Graham Potter | Saturday, July 23, 2022

The second leg of the Mark Du Plessis riding double on July 23 was filled with contention and more than a little heart-felt emotion with the race being awarded to Du Plessis’s mount Oakfield Twilight after a protest against Swanston, the first horse past the post, was upheld in the steward’s room.

The fact that Swanston was trained by Greg Kilner, whose daughter Leah is, thankfully, recovering from serious injuries following her terrible fall at Grafton, meant that there was already a lot of emotion in play straight after Swanston had held off Oakfield Twilight by the narrowest of margins on the line … and when all of that deeply heartfelt flow of feeling was interrupted by a protest, you could quite understand the connections of Oakfield Twilight becoming upset.

And things did not get any better for them when the protest, the basis of which they completely disagreed with, was upheld by stewards.

This is from the official steward’s report:

‘Prior to the declaration of correct weight Stewards considered an objection lodged by Jockey M Du Plessis (Oakfield Twilight) rider of the second placed horse for alleged interference over the final 200m against the winner Swanston ridden by T Harrison. Stewards after considering the interference and taking evidence from both riders and Mr Kilner the trainer of Swanston were satisfied that over the concluding stages, Swanston did shift and impede the running of Oakfield Twilight and when considering the nose margin, the manner in which both horses finished off, Stewards were satisfied that the interference suffered to Oakfield Twilight was greater than the margin and upheld the objection and declared correct weight on the new numbers of 14,13,2,4.’
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In the race itself, Du Plessis got Oakfield Twilight away smartly from the gates, landing his mount in the lead before giving up that position to Swanston, who Tegan Harrison had brought across from a wide draw in the Class 6 Handicap for Colts and Entires over 1350m.

Du Plessis then settled Oakfield Twilight in third spot on the rail, two lengths off the frontrunning Swanston as the latter pulled the field along to the home turn, where runners started to fan out as the speed came on.

Du Plessis stayed on the rail, targeting a run inside of Swanston in the straight.

As things would turn out, the critical moment of the race came when the leader reached the 200m, at which stage Du Plessis changed direction aboard Oakfield Twilight, pulling the son of Zoffany’s head sharply to the left and switching around Swanton’s heels, before charging home to be beaten by a lip.

Du Plessis’s move was prompted by Swanston starting to shift ground towards the inside … a situation which Du Plessis’s experience allowed him to identify early and to react quickly.

Swanston had clearly crossed Oakfield Twilight’s intended path, but that only brought the question into play … had Oakfield Twilight already established that inside run or not?

Nobody on other side of this argument will have their mind changed on this one, but the slight 0.10 length margin between the first and second runners to cross the line on the track was always going to be a problem for Swanston.

On the basis of that small margin, any inconvenience to the runner-up would have been enough to change the result … but conflicting arguments still rage about whether there was any inconvenience or not!

In the cold light on day though, the steward’s had to leave all the motion at the door and undertake their responsibility of adjudicating on the matter.

Their decision, while largely unpopular, was based on the facts as they saw them and their decision was final as they declared Oakfield Twilight the winner and relegated Swanston to second place.

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