Stewards at Newmarket blundered today when handing out the wrong punishment after Jimmy Fortune was found to have committed a serious riding offence.
Fortune was handed a ban for five days for irresponsible riding of a major nature and will now be on the sidelines for the entire Royal Ascot meeting.
But under the Rules, Fortune should have been referred to Portman Square for his latest misdemeanour under the totting up procedure' as he had already passed the 15-day trigger point.
The stewards erred because they had not realised that Fortune had been banned for four days at Epsom last Friday.
The latest mistake comes just two months after a similar episode when Darryll Holland committed a riding offence at Hamilton.
After that the Jockey Club vowed that something like this would never happen again.
Officials at Portman Square will hold an investigation tomorrow into the embarrassing blunder.
Worried stewards had held discussions for more than a hour after the error had been pointed out to them by members of the Press.
Stewards secretary Ashley Bealby, a relative newcomer to the job, said: 'It would appear that Fortune was banned on Friday and that with this latest offence he should have been sent on to Portman Square.
'Fortune had already had 13 days of bans when he offended at Epsom last week, so that took him over the 15-day trigger point.
'Under the Rules the next time he offended he should have been referred.
'Unfortunately we were unaware of the Epsom ban and as it stands he's not going to Portman Square.'
Bealby thought the error could have occurred because of a new computer system for jockey bans introduced at the beginning of the year.
'I'm no computer whizz but there could be a flaw in the system that needs to be sorted out,' he said.
'There was no note of Friday's ban - it might be something to do with the fact that there are early declarations for Sunday's racing.
'There probably hasn't been a suspension on Friday followed by a suspension on Sunday for the same jockey before.'
Fortune found himself in trouble when L'Arita badly hampered Cultured Pearl at the two furlong pole in the EBF Fillies' Handicap.
His mount went on to finish second but was disqualified and placed last.
'The stewards felt there wasn't a sufficient gap to go through without causing interference,' said Bealby.
Fortune appeared bemused by the affair and said: 'I'd rather make no comment.'
The ban runs from June 22-26 inclusive meaning he will be on the sidelines for a total of nine racing days.
He was suspended for four days by the Epsom stewards for careless riding when Border Arrow interfered with Fantastic Light in the Coronation Cup.
