The nine jockeys banned for failing to pull up during a race that was declared void at Wetherby last Wednesday have failed in their appeal against 10-day suspensions.
Sixteen-times champion Tony McCoy and leading riders Graham Lee, Paddy Brennan and Denis O'Regan were among those found guilty of failing to stop after a yellow flag was shown due to a stricken horse on the course.
Danny Cook, Jonathon Bewley, Alexander Voy, Brian Hughes and Brian Toomey were the other riders who continued to race. The British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel upheld the bans (October 26-November 4) at an appeal hearing in London on Wednesday morning.
The Charlie Hall Chase at Wetherby and the Haldon Gold Cup at Exeter are two major races the jockeys will miss.
Solicitor Rory Mac Neice, representing the Wetherby jockeys, said: "The evidence showed riders were having to react to conflicting signals. They reacted to the last signal, which was two clearly deployed chequered flags, which are there to warn riders of a hazard, but not that the race should be stopped. We wait to hear the reasons given from the BHA disciplinary panel."
McCoy and O'Regan were present to give evidence, but a BHA disciplinary panel found the riders concerned ignored the deployment of the yellow flag and failed to pull up immediately.
McCoy later said on BBC Radio 5 Live: "We don't dispute the fact we should have stopped - the yellow flag means stop. But it was the conflicting messages we were getting when we saw the two chequered flags after the yellow flag that confused the whole issue. There should really be only one yellow flag, and that's what we got wrong.
"When we went to see the transcript, the decision was probably made by London (stewards), rather than Wetherby (stewards) which is a bit disappointing.
"I had given my evidence to a panel of stewards who I thought were the ones who were going to penalise me, and I came away hearing that the decision had been aided by what was going on in London."
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