Gold Rating was controversially disqualified by Queensland stewards after apprentice Patrick Keane weighed in light following the horse's narrow win at Eagle Farm on Saturday.Gold Rating was handicapped on 57.5kg and should have carried 55.5kg after Keane's three kilo claim and the one kilo allowance for the jockey's safety vest.The clerk of the scales recorded Keane's weigh-out weight at 55.60kg but the lanky apprentice weighed in at 54.74kg after the race.Under the Australian Rules Of Racing,
Gold Rating was controversially disqualified by Queensland stewards after apprentice Patrick Keane weighed in light following the horse's narrow win at Eagle Farm on Saturday.
Gold Rating was handicapped on 57.5kg and should have carried 55.5kg after Keane's three kilo claim and the one kilo allowance for the jockey's safety vest.
The clerk of the scales recorded Keane's weigh-out weight at 55.60kg but the lanky apprentice weighed in at 54.74kg after the race.
Under the Australian Rules Of Racing, the clerk can afford the rider half a kilo but that still left Keane under his correct weight and chief steward Wade Birch promptly disqualified the horse from the race.
"We can't establish how that loss of weight has occurred," Birch said.
"Gold Rating carried less weight than it should have and we have no option but to disqualify the horse," Birch said.
Keane blamed the high humidity and a hard ride for the weight loss and Gold Rating's trainer Michael Nolan stormed out of the stewards' room in disgust.
The horse's owner Kim McCasker argued Keane would have easily lost half a kilo during the race and said the stewards' decision was too harsh.
Stewards amended the placings and declared Mr Light Blue the winner, with Majestic Sound second and Eureka Jack third and adjourned the inquiry into the incident.