Jamie Kah will miss three key spring carnival meetings after the leading jockey was found guilty of a running and handling charge.
Kah will be sidelined for the Turnbull Stakes, Caulfield Guineas and Caulfield Cup meetings following a Victorian Racing Tribunal decision on Thursday.
Racing Victoria stewards asked for a penalty of at least six weeks, but the VRT suspended Kah for three weeks.
Her penalty for breaching AR 129(2) will start at midnight on September 28 and extends to October 20 - the day after the $5 million Caulfield Cup.
Kah pleaded not guilty to a stewards’ charge that she did not take “all reasonable and permissible measures” to ensure her mount Let’sfacethemusic was given the appropriate opportunity to win or obtain the best possible place in the Group 3 McNeil Stakes.
Let’sfacethemusic, who races out of the Mick Price-Mick Kent Jr stable, was beaten 4.5 lengths as an $8.50 chance behind early spring discovery Growing Empire at Caulfield on August 31.
At the end of the meeting, stewards opened an inquiry into Kah’s ride before issuing a charge last week.
They found three areas of concern over Kah’s ride in the home straight, claiming she lacked urgency and purpose to improve her position when a run presented between the 175m and 100m.
Kah, who has ridden 14 Group 1 winners, missed a large portion of 2022 spring carnival after a breach of RV’s COVID-19 protocols.
She also spent several months out of the saddle after a serious fall at Flemington in March 2023.
Kah has ridden 14 metropolitan winners in Melbourne this season to share an early lead in the jockeys’ title race.
The 28-year-old has seven rides at the Group 1 Underwood Stakes meeting at Caulfield on Saturday.
Among them is rising talent Another Wil, a short-priced favourite to continue on his winning way in the Testa Rossa Stakes.
After winning last season's South Australian Derby on Coco Sun, Kah will reunite with the mare in the Underwood Stakes.
