Tom Marquand was unseated from Al Hudaiba just inside the final furlong at Yarmouth on Thursday in a moment that turned the British Stallion Studs EBF Novice Stakes on its head. The Godolphin two-year-old, trained by Charlie Appleby and sent off the 10-11 favourite after winning its debut at Newmarket 13 days earlier, jinked to the right and left its rider on the turf.
Byzantine, ridden by Billy Loughnane, stayed upright and took advantage to win the race after Al Hudaiba’s sudden move. From the commentary box, Alex Fussey told listeners that Al Hudaiba had jinked and unseated the rider inside the furlong, then added that Marquand was kneeling up and appeared to be okay, though winded. Sky Sports Racing reporter Jason Weaver called the incident “very, very strange” and asked what the horse had seen, saying there was nothing wrong with the track.
The stewards later found that no other horse or rider was involved. Their report said the colt had initially drifted left-handed before sharply ducking right-handed, a sequence that explained why the fall came so suddenly in the final 100 yards. That mattered because the race had looked straightforward for Appleby’s colt, only for a brief, unexplained movement to change the result in an instant.
Marquand took the fall with more humor than alarm. He said he wondered whether there were double beds in hospital because he might have joined Hollie Doyle, then added that he was all right. He later said the horse had been stepping towards Billy Loughnane, who was on his left, and that after he tried to get him rolling the colt stepped the opposite way sharply. “At least he’s all right and I got up all right too,” he said.
There was still more action for Marquand later on Thursday. He was back in the winners’ enclosure two races later to complete a double for William Haggas, a quick return to form after the fall. But he was then stood down from his final ride by the racecourse doctor, a reminder that even when a jockey climbs back on quickly, the day is not always done with him.
The fall also lands against the backdrop of Doyle’s absence. She is in hospital after breaking her left leg in a fall at Bath last Friday, with the injury described as a complex fracture to the tibia and fibula and surgery still to come. She is expected to be out of action for much of the summer, making Marquand’s joke about hospital beds sting with a note of genuine concern underneath it. For all his swift recovery at Yarmouth, the final ride stood down by the doctor showed how quickly a routine afternoon can become a race against the body as much as the clock.
