Talking Horses: Moscrop banned after winning race at Perth on lame horse

A dramatic novice chase at Perth on Tuesday left jockey Nathan Moscrop with a winner and a 10-day riding ban. The stewards decided that he had failed to pull up his mount Im Too Generous – the only one of six starters still standing – when the gelding apparently went lame after jumping the final fence.

Moscrop made all the running on the 9-2 chance and was in a clear lead after three opponents failed to jump the fourth-last fence. Court Dreaming, who was in a distant second place, unseated his jockey at the next while the only other runner was pulled up. Im Too Generous came home in a canter, but the stewards held an inquiry and decided that the rider had “failed to dismount his horse when it appeared to have gone lame after the final fence”.

Related: Talking Horses: racing at risk without better prize money, warns trainer

A subsequent veterinary examination confirmed that Im Too Generous was lame on his off-fore leg and Moscrop was banned for 10 days. John Dance, the horse’s part-owner, told the Racing Post on Tuesday that he felt the ban was “incredibly harsh”.

“He [Moscrop] knows he’s got over the last,” Dance said. “I was watching from work and haven’t seen after the line, but I don’t believe Nathan would do anything other than the right thing for the horse, he absolutely adores him.” Dance added that Im Too Generous would be retired after his latest win, due to fears that a previous tendon injury had resurfaced.

“Nathan has put so much work into getting that horse right,” Dance said, “not just on the track but at home too. I’ve spoken to him, he’s heartbroken he won’t get to ride him again. I can’t believe that he wouldn’t have pulled the horse up sensibly as soon as he’d felt something.”

Enable exploits can boost diminished King George

The King George VI & Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot on Saturday could set several records that the course might prefer to overlook. The smallest number of trainers to run horses – just two – is already a given, while a drop from eight entries to four would see the smallest field since 1964. The chance that it will generate even a small part of its £400,000 prize fund via betting turnover also seems remote.

At the Queen’s racecourse, though, this is all being viewed with typical stoicism. There has never been a year like this one, but so long as Enable turns up to attempt to set another, much more positive record with an unprecedented third win, the rest is detail. Enable was backed from 5-6 to 4-6 with William Hill on Tuesday, amid growing optimism that the race on Saturday will be remembered only for a historic achievement.

“There really isn’t a great sense of disappointment,” Nick Smith, Ascot’s head of PR, said on Tuesday. “There have in the past been renewals where you thought, this isn’t quite the midsummer showpiece you want to have, but I don’t think people feel like that, because you’ve got Enable and the six-day entry means you won’t get speculative entries.

“We’d have loved to see Ghaiyyath [the Eclipse winner] run but his path was set immediately after the Eclipse. This is a very unusual year, and the way that the Derby was run means that with the best will in the world, could you really go to a King George after being beaten 10 or 12 lengths in the Derby? It requires an enormous improvement from anything we’ve seen other than Love [the Oaks winner] and for her it makes sense to go to [the Yorkshire Oaks at] York.”

Wednesday’s tips

The fitness of Chil Chil (2.40) needs to be taken on trust ahead of her return to action in the feature event at Bath, and a drift from 5-2 overnight to 7-2 is a little off-putting. However, Andrew Balding’s horses are still running well and the trainer has a very decent 14.4% strike rate over the last four seasons with runners coming off a break of at least 100 days and Chil Chil looked like the type to progress further at four when winning three of her five starts last season.

She has form on quick ground too and it’s going to be a day for the specialists on the firm going at Bath. Q Twenty Boy (1.40) ran well over course and distance 12 days ago and can go a couple of places better, while at Catterick Bridge, Jigs Princess (4.30) has a handy weight in the first nursery handicap of 2020.

Yarmouth 12.45 My Vision 1.20 Alpine Mistral 1.50 Elsie Voilet 2.20 Pink Sands 2.50 Soldier Lions 3.20 Independence Day 3.50 Prince Casper 4.20 Internationalangel 4.50 Folk Dance

Bath 1.10 Sidi Mansour 1.40 Q Twenty Boy 2.10 Pull Harder Con 2.40 Chil Chil (nap) 3.10 Lehwaiyla 3.40 Alezan 4.10 Grimsthorpe Castle 4.40 Ifton 5.10 Hidden Depths

Catterick 4.30 Jigs Princess 5.00 Infant Hercules 5.30 Mogsy 6.00 Poet's Magic 6.30 Science 7.00 Lucky Beggar 7.30 Northern Charm
8.00 Indian Sounds (nb) 8.30 Madeeh

Poet’s Magic (6.00) also has a big chance on the same card while Prince Casper (3.50) makes most appeal at Yarmouth.