James Mcdonald suspended after whip breachJockey James McDonald will have gone from the highs of winning one of the richest Magic Millions races in Australia to being benched for the next seven days after the stewards deemed he had breached whip rules during a ride at the start of the day.
The ride in questions was that of the well backed Devil’s Throat where he was seen using the whip 17 times in the Magic Millions Maiden at the beginning of the Gold Coast card.
During the hearing McDonald pleaded guilty to the charges and will now spend a week out of the saddle and subsequently miss any metro meeting in Sydney next Saturday.
When breaching the whip rules, the stewards use a sliding scale to determine the length of the suspension with penalties starting after 15 strikes on a runner.
McDonald wasn’t the only jockey to land himself in hot water however with fellow rider Baylee Nothdruft being cited for a his aboard Totally Charmed in the Magic Millions Snippets contest.
Totally Charmed was found to have caused interference with Rohyrn when entering the home straight which the Godolphin runner was lucky not to fall from. Nothdruft copped a 16 day suspension as penalty.
After the race totally charmed was found to have bled which given it is the second time the runner has had the issue is now retired from racing immediately.
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