What happens if no horse finishes the race?

On the face of it, the ‘Totepool Flexi Betting At The Cheltenham Festival Novices’ Chase’, staged at Towcester on March 17, 2011, looked, at best, a run-of-the-mill event. The two-and-a-half mile contest featured just four, unexceptional runners and its scheduling, in the midst of the Cheltenham Festival – in fact, less than a hour after Big Buck’s had completed the third of his four consecutive wins in the Stayers’ Hurdle – hardly added to its attraction.

However, nondescript though it may have appeared at first glance, the race did enter the record books as the first ever to be declared void because none of the runners finished. In November, 2009, the British Horseracing Authority introduced a new rule, in the interests of safety to horse and rider, which banned remounting, under any circumstances, after the start of a race. The rule introduced the possibility of no finishers.

At Towcester, two of the four runners, Zhukov, who fell when in the lead, and Cenzig, who swerved on landing and unseated rider when tailed off last, had already departed the contest before halfway. That left Identity Parade, ridden by Adrian Lane, and Radharc Na Mara, ridden by Peter Toole, to fight out the finish. Approaching the final fence, Identity Parade was firmly in command but, distracted by people gathered around the fence, tried to refuse and fell, with the race at his mercy.

At that point, the sole surviving runner, Radharc Na Mara was left, albeit briefly, in the lead. However, he failed to avoid his stricken rival and unseated Toole; granted that his mount had not actually fallen, Toole was involved in a discussion with a racecourse steward but, when the possibility of remounting was ruled out, the result of the race was struck from the record.