Matt Chapman calls for action to protect punters from faulty starting stalls in his latest column

THE stewards of the BHA believe that if a horse’s stall opens at a different time to the rest of the field it makes no difference to a race.

Makes you wonder why we have stalls at all, doesn’t it?

Over the last couple of weeks on two separate occasions races have been marred by a stall opening late.

On both occasions the stewards decided “the incident had not materially prejudiced a sufficient number of runners” to take any further action.

To suggest a stall opening late doesn’t change a race is naive in the extreme, and shows a total void of knowledge of the Sport of Kings and, even more importantly, a lack of respect for punters.

First came the Lee Carter-trained Cadeaux Boxer, who was a big gamble for the apprentice handicap at Wolverhampton on August 23.

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Cadeaux Boxer is a horse who sulks when he can’t lead - so when his stall opens late his chance is destroyed. The stewards think this is of no importance. Hello?

Then, at Southwell on August 27, Handsome Dude was drawn in stall one and his gate opened late in another apprentice handicap.

Next door to him, in stall two, East Street Revue’s stall opened but the left side of the gate bounced back into the horses face when it should have stayed open.

Handsome Dude was a 6-1 chance who finished 13th of 14.

If you have backed any of those horses do you think you have had a run for your money? No you do not. British stewards think you have.

Now of course a hard and fast rule has consequences. A stall might open late and a horse might go and win.

But more often than not it’s not going to be great if the horse you support comes out of a box later than the rest of the field. And fractions in Flat racing make a difference.

There is no need to void such races. That is extreme.