SAM Twiston-Davies has revealed that Riders Onthe Storm was scratched from Saturday’s Cheltenham feature in error.
The six-year-old, who was the 4-1 favourite for the Caspian Caviar Gold Cup, was declared a non-runner due to an ‘infection’.
However, the horse with the infection is Rocco, who was due to run at Bangor this afternoon.
The mistake was noticed in ‘less than a minute’, but after contacting Weatherby’s and the BHA, the authorities refused to let the horse back into the 130,000 race.
Twiston-Davies told Sun Racing: “Dad rang someone in our office to say that Rocco had to be pulled out because he had a sore leg.
“By accident, she pulled out Riders Onthe Storm from the race at Cheltenham tomorrow.
“Nige was back in the office in less than a minute and realised what had happened and rang Weatherby’s and the BHA straight away.
“They said rules are rules, he can’t go back in the race. It goes without saying it is very frustrating.
“It was a genuine accident which we picked up on very quickly, but they’ve said nothing can be changed.
“We all make mistakes – but clearly no-one at the BHA does.”
