Alphonse Le Grande loses Cesarewitch after whip rules breach

"There is simply no excuse for using the whip four times or more above the permitted level [of six]," Brant Dunshea, the British Horseracing Authority's chief regulatory officer, said yesterday, after the regulator's whip review committee had disqualified Alphonse Le Grande and Jamie Powell from first place in the Cesarewitch Handicap at Newmarket on Saturday.

- Greg Wood

"[Disqualification] sends a clear message that we do not tolerate misuse of the whip." But if it is not excusable then the fact that Powell has now been stripped of the most valuable and high-profile success of his career is, to some extent at least, explicable.

He was a 3lb-claiming apprentice, making only the eighth start of his career in Britain. The 18-furlong Cesarewitch is one of the longest races in the calendar and Powell was in front, on the other side of the course to Manxman, the runner-up, from more than a quarter of a mile out. Victory in a £175,000 race was within his grasp if he could only keep Alphonse Le Grande going.

Powell also picked up a 28-day suspension on days when there is Flat racing in Britain between 29 October and 6 December. Whether he tried and failed to count up to nine, or simply forgot about the 10-stroke trigger for automatic disqualification in the heat of the action, it is a lesson learned the hard way.