A JOCKEY who was whacked with ‘one of the biggest fines ever’ has now been banned for a massively controversial ride.
Nash Rawiller was labelled a ‘genius’ for his shock 40-1 winner on Think It Over in Australia earlier this month.
Extraordinary. After the whip chat earlier I get the feeling Katie and Bruce don’t like Nash. pic.twitter.com/BBVIdOpQU1
— Brad Miller (@HORSEMILLER3) April 16, 2022
But his heroics in the saddle came with a £22,860 fine – later reduced to £17,000 – after he broke whip rules.
Now his latest brush with the law has seen him slammed for ‘stupidity’ after he took a daredevil inside line in a race.
Australian champion jockey Rawiller, 47, hit the running rail and hind quarters of tiring leader Big Parade while barging through a gap that didn’t look to be there on Kementari at Randwick, Australia, last Saturday.
But get through he did on the 11-2 shot, landing the Group 3, £45,161 first-place prize for trainer James Cummings.
Punters who backed the legendary jockey were loving it but TV expert and former jockey Katelyn Mallyon was one who thought differently.
She slammed the ride, saying: “That’s not courage. That’s stupidity.
“There was no run there and he shouldn’t have gone for it, I don’t think.
“Because, first of all, he’s putting Kementari at danger and himself, and so is Josh Parr on Big Parade.
“There’s absolutely no run there. It’ll be interesting to see what the stewards do, but as a rule book, you can’t go where there’s no run.”
Rawiller, who’s won just shy of £80million in his career, told stewards his move ‘wasn’t pretty’ and that the room he spotted for a move closed once he got in there.
He said: “Big Parade started to wander off the rail a little bit.
“For me as a jockey there was no way I could come out of it.
“There was a run which started to close when I got in there. The end result wasn’t pretty.”
For his part, Parr said he was surprised to see another runner up his inside.
He said: “It’s not a hell of a lot of room but I do grasp what Nash is sizing up.
“But I do stick to the fact I was surprised there was a horse to my inside.”
Rawiller pleaded not guilty but was slapped with a seven-meeting ban for careless riding.
That will come into effect when his whip ban ends, and the second suspension will finish on May 13.