CHAMPION rider Greg Ryan will use the next six weeks to take a trip to the snow and complete jobs around his house after his appeal against a suspension handed down by stewards failed.
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The Racing NSW appeals panel yesterday handed down its decision after Ryan objected to the suspension which emanated from his ride aboard $2.50 favourite Grey Pariz in a race at Dubbo back in June.
Early last month an inquiry was held at Dubbo racecourse, where Ryan was found guilty under rule 135 (b) of the Australian Rules of Racing, which states a rider "shall take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure their horse is given full opportunity to win or to obtain the best possible place in a field".
He has since been riding on a stay of proceedings, and with rides booked for today at Coonabarabran and Monday at Forbes. He will not start his suspension until Tuesday and will be able to return to the saddle on September 16.
The appeal was heard last Tuesday, however the announcement of the decision was delayed until yesterday.
In the race in question Ryan elected to go back from a wide gate on board Grey Pariz, a horse which had predominantly led or raced on the pace, before running on to finish third behind Subtract.
There was never an insinuation from stewards that Ryan hadn't tried aboard the gelding, merely that he made an error of judgement by riding the horse in a different pattern to normal.
"The decision goes against everything that wins races in my opinion, being judgement of pace and having cover in a race," Ryan said.
"I put forward my case and there's nothing I can do now. I had a two-week snow trip planned anyway and I'll spend the rest of the time fixing up jobs at home.
"I'm disappointed but I've still got my health and everyone is well at home. There's people doing far worse in life than me."
Yesterday's release of the appeal findings provided 12 pages of interesting reading, with the three-member panel stating "it is very clear from the film that the appellant (Ryan) made no attempt to ride the horse with any vigour at all in the early stages of the race" and that "he restrained the horse, for reasons for which there are in our view no adequate explanation".
In relation to a section of the race between the 400m and the 200m they found Ryan "used far less vigour on the horse between the 400m-200m mark than he did in the final stages of the race".
With the charge hanging over him for the final two months of the racing season, Ryan also conceded the mental effect may have cost him the national jockeys premiership.
Victorian Brad Rawiller finished the 2013-14 season - which concluded on Thursday - with 156.5 winners, two clear of the Dubbo jockey.
"I can think of a couple of horses I rode that I went further forward on than I normally would have that got run down late, simply because I didn't rate them the way I normally would have," he said.
"I even got a $200 fine the other day for hitting one too many times with the whip, and I'd only ever been fined once before for doing that
"Brad is a good rider and deserved the premiership but the thing I fear is this decision sets a dangerous precedent and all jockeys are going to have to think about how they ride. It opens a real can of worms.
"The penalty doesn't bother me but in the past six or eight weeks I've changed the way I've ridden horses and it's something I'll have to look at when I come back too.
"My methods are what I've used for more than 20 years, and you don't get lucky for that long, so they must be methods that work, but now I'll have to change them to satisfy stewards and punters."