Stewards called it right. Queally dropped the ball.

By Alan Conway

Life is like a bungee cord. One moment you are up, the next you are down. Over the years sport has been littered with highs and lows. Last Sunday Henry Cecil and Tom Queally shared a very low moment when their filly Jacqueline Quest lost the 1000 Guineas to Special Duty in the stewards’ room. After the race, trainer Henry Cecil was in a philosophical mood saying “That’s the way it goes and that’s racing. I hope there’ll be other days. I’ve known Criquette for a long time and I’m very pleased for her.” One assumes that Cecil was not too happy with Tom Queally however.

Watching the race live it seemed that Tom Queally rode a superb race. He tracked the pace, made what looked like a winning move two furlongs out and fought bravely to deny Stephane Pasquier on Special Duty. It was only when watching the head on replay that it showed that Queally was in trouble. In the red hot atmosphere of a classic the jockey panicked. The stewards determined that “Tom Queally has his whip in his left hand and didn’t pull it through, it wasn’t too difficult a decision, they’ve gone almost halfway across the track”. The right call was made in awarding the race to Special Duty. Queally however should not have given the stewards a decision to make.

Queally should have changed his whip and corrected his mount. The interference that Special Duty suffered was greater than the margin of defeat so awarding her the race was the correct decision. Looking back, it was hard to know what Tom Queally was thinking. He did everything right. He had his whip in the correct hand when Jacqueline Quest began to drift right. But when the bumping started he changed his whip into his left hand, causing his mount to hang further into Special Duty.

It is perhaps somewhat insensitive to be critical of a jockey, given the pressure that he must have been under. Knowing how to manage that pressure however and being able to make decisions when the pressure is on separates the classic winning jockeys from the rest.

Even if Queally changed his whip, would it have made a difference to the result? Jacqueline Quest was coming to the end of her run when she began to hang. All the momentum was with Special Duty. She would have won clearly with an uninterrupted passage. The best horse on the day was Special Duty. Looking forward I find it hard to make a case for Jacqueline Quest reversing places with her in future races. The French filly has more scope to improve than the Cecil-trained filly. In a match bet, I would take Special Duty to beat Jacqueline Quest every time.

The only consolation that the Cecil team can take from last weekend is that they have a high class filly that they can go to war with over the summer. However that will be little comfort to Tom Queally at this moment. Jockeys live and die by results. No matter how good everyone may think they are, if they are not getting winners they will be forgotten quickly. This is the first big challenge of Tom Queally’s career. His star has been on an upward curve since he joined forces with Henry Cecil. How he recovers from this setback will stand to him in years to come.

Everyone makes mistakes. It was the simplicity of the mistake that will gnaw at him. He has struck up a successful partnership with Henry Cecil. Their finest hour coming at last year’s Breeder’s Cup when Queally and Midday won the Filly and Mare Turf. The true test of a man is how he deals with adversity. For the moment Tom Queally is on a quest to right a wrong. I wouldn’t bet against him putting it right sooner rather than later.

By Alan Conway