“I woke up this morning and thought. ‘Tell me that didn’t really happen!'”
After arriving on the scene with a bang in the ARC Classic at Sunderland, novice trainer George Cunningham saw the other face of the God of Dog Racing with a disastrous night at Newcastle. After seeing all four runners qualify from the first round, George saw Lav Yin Yak finish last in the opening semi, Narcos The Great and Narcos Dode finished third and fourth with two to qualify in the last heat, but the real sickener was the disqualification of Narcos Tata for fighting in the second semi final.
George said: “I wasn’t at the track and thought the disqualification was harsh. I spoke to the track and originally thought they had accepted that she didn’t affect the result and would let me re-school her. But the result came through and I saw they had disqualified her.
“I was already a bit unhappy because I thought Narcos The Great should have been seeded rails but the racing office insisted on him being middle. I don’t know whether he would have qualified anyway but he didn’t get any kind of run.”
Newcastle boss Ian Walton was not among the stewards on the night but has endorsed their decision.
He said: “The first thing I should say is that I am very sorry for George. To have a dog disqualified when apparently qualifying for a Category One final is horrible.
“I watched the replay several times and really don’t think the stewards had any choice. Nobody gains from us disqualifying Narcos Tata but at the same time, if we had ignored it and she did something in the final, we would rightly face more criticism. George has lots of trials at Newcastle and we would welcome him back for Tata’s clearing trials if that suits him.
“It is a great shame because I think we still have a fabulous final. Jaguar Macie has a fabulous record here and will have plenty of support and I thought Mickys Barrett’s performance was his best to date here because he had to work for it.
“We know about the pace of Droopys Biggy on the outside next to an empty trap while Potent Touch and Bellmont Pepper have the early pace to cause a surprise. It should be a great final.”
