A JOCKEY who weighed in ‘massively overweight’ has been hit with a one-month ban after trying to deceive stewards with a crafty scales trick.
Australian star James Orman, 23, was found guilty of ‘corruption, dishonesty and misleading behaviour’ at a hearing.
And he was also fined £226 for the incident which came after he had just ridden a convincing winner.
A racecourse steward confronted Orman after having his suspicions over the jockey’s weight following his victory in a contest in Ballina, New South Wales, last month.
Jockeys weigh in before and after races – one British jockey was recently disqualified after winning a race for weighing in light.
Orman weighed 57.4kg before the race and 58kg after.
Steward Mark Holloway thought something was up and asked the jockey to remove his riding gloves, when his weight fell to 57.7kg.
Still not happy, he changed position to have a look and how the jockey was standing.
It was then he noticed the rider was resting his leg against the face of the scale, say Australia’s Daily Telegraph.
When Orman moved into the centre of the scales he weighed a whopping 58.7kg – 1.7kg more than the 57kg allotted to his ride.
The star Australian jockey got whacked with a one-month ban and £226 fine
At this point, had the jockey accepted he was 1.7kg overweight, he would have received a fine but not a ban.
As it was, he maintained his innocence and was hit with two charges.
The first, AR229(1)(a) for corruption, dishonesty and misleading behaviour.
The second under AR211(1) for returning to scale in excess of half a kilo over his declared weight of 57kg — allowing for the protective vest.
Orman travelled to Sydney on Tuesday to fight his case.
At a hearing in front of a panel, Orman said his leg was touching the scale and that it was because he was ‘flat out standing up’ due to exhaustion from cutting to make weight for the racing.
He said he needed to lose 2.8kg and spent the morning before the meet sweating out.
Orman said by the time he weighed in after the race he was physically spent and would have stood down had he had any races left.
Stewards disputed this claim and the ruling came in their favour.
Racing New South Wales chief steward Marc Van Gastel said: “I put it to you that it is a convenient excuse that you accidentally pushed against the scale when you intentionally did.”
Orman claimed his weight gain had been down to drinking ‘two to three’ cups of iced water but the NSW Appeals Panel found it ‘implausible’ a jockey could put on that amount of weight in such a short space of time.
The panel found in favour of the stewards and upheld the jockey’s one-month ban.
Orman’s suspension kicks in on December 18 and runs until January 18.
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