Leading WA jockey Chris Parnham suspended for 17 days on careless riding charge

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Leading WA jockey Chris Parnham suspended for 17 days on careless riding charge

Premiership leader Chris Parnham is the second ace jockey knocked out of Perth’s rich carnival after copping a 17-day suspension at Ascot on Saturday.

Stewards charged Parnham with careless riding when he moved out on third placegetter Super Smink, causing interference in the $1.5 million Gold Rush.

Parnham will be sidelined with William Pike, who fractured a wrist when falling from an e-scooter last week and missed the Gold Rush winning ride on Western Empire.

A victories double on Saturday boosted Parnham’s seasonal Perth tally to 54 wins and he heads the city hoops’ list from Pike (48 1/2).

“Super Smink shifted out near the 200m, when not fully clear of Wind And The Lion,” stewards said in a statement. “Wind And The Lion was inconvenienced and crowded.”

Last month’s $500,000 Placid Ark Stakes winner Wind And The Lion dropped out and finished 13th after his interference.

Parnham told stewards he would begin the ban immediately and resume riding on Perth Cup day, January 1. He will miss Wednesday’s $125,000 ATA Stakes mount on Perth Cup fancy In Good Order and also forfeits a chance to ride in the $300,000 Ted Van Heemst Stakes on Saturday.

Trainer Dan Morton has booked Shaun O’Donnell as the ATA Stakes replacement aboard In Good Order, a Scahill and Towton cups placegetter at his past two starts.

ATA Stakes riding engagements for other Perth Cup contenders include Diamond Scene (Clint Johnston-Porter), Sentimental Hero (Lucy Fiore), Playhouse Patron (Joseph Azzopardi), Iowa (Holly Watson) and Red Sunset Sensation (Patrick Carbery).

Co-trainers Grant and Alana Williams, who won the last Perth Cup with Casino Seventeen, will switch Western Empire back from the Gold Rush’s 1400m. His mission is next April’s $5 million Quokka (1200m) at Ascot.

Western Empire finished powerfully from 10th position when ridden by replacement hoop Billy Egan in the Gold Rush.

“We’ll prepare him for the Quokka and he won’t go interstate,” Grant Williams said. “He’ll have two trials ahead of the Quokka.”

Meanwhile, Perth Racing chief executive James Oldring has vowed to avoid repetition of an embarrassing course maintenance blunder which threatened the Gold Rush meeting.

Stewards found unsafe track sections near the 500m and 300m posts, about 90 minutes before the first event was due. Racing began 35 minutes late, after railing was erected around trouble spots.

“These problems should have been detected earlier by Perth Racing,” Oldring said on Sunday. “The issue is reputation-damaging to our club and we accept responsibility. Processes will be introduced to ensure it does not happen again.”

Oldring said attendance at the carnival, which began last month, had been “solid”.

“We need to look (for changes) at the Winterbottom and Northerly meetings,” he said.

+ WA pacer Minstrel, an Inter Dominion Championship Final runner-up in Sydney on Saturday night, is quoted $5 by Ladbrokes for April’s Nullarbor slot race at Gloucester Park.

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