Medermit refuses to jump at Huntingdon
Times like these emphasise the point that horses are in fact animals, and not machines.
According to the form-book, Medermit would have had to run well below his ability to be beaten in the Tom Jones Memorial Novices’ Chase at Huntingdon. Unfortunately for his followers it was not his talent that let him down but his temperament. Looking well in command in the early stages of the race, building up a decent advantage from his imperious jumping over the first four fences, all looked to be going swimmingly.
However, as the field came to the first in the back straight, Alan King’s runner jinked towards the rail, veering across the fence which left jockey Wayne Hutchinson helpless as Medermit refused to jump the fence. The amazing scenes sent shockwaves through the markets for the Arkle Chase at Cheltenham in March, where Medermit was demoted from market leader and the Paul Nicholls' trained Celestial Halo was installed as the new favourite.
Alan King was left dumbfounded with the defeat of the 1.20 matched red-hot favourite: "At moments like this I don't know whether to laugh or cry, but I vote laugh. He's the last horse I would have expected to do that."
Jockey Hutchinson revealed that the horse had caught something in the corner of his vision approaching the fence which triggered the uncharacteristic behaviour.
"It's just one of those things,” he said.
“At least I'll get a lead next time. At the first down the back he spotted a truck and some fence attendants and just made up his mind [not to jump]. It's so out of character."
The drama of the race failed to finish there. As the first past the post Sergeant Pink lost the race after his rider Tom Scudamore failed to hold his line around the final fence which caused sufficient trouble to the runner-up Harry Tricker, who was awarded the race by the stewards.
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