Hefty fine for Bridgwater

Trainer David Bridgwater has been slapped with a £2,000 fine for recent comments made regarding jockey Jake Launchbury.

The 16-year-old was leading on-board Bally Sands at Ludlow on January 7 in the latter stages of the race, but a change in direction proved to be a major factor in the overall outcome.

Launchbury almost went onto the wrong part of the course and only realised his mistake at the last moment, and despite getting back on the correct path he ended up third.

The jockey was handed a 21-day ban as a result and it was this decision that Bridgwater reacted angrily to. The trainer said: “The same idiots there that were there when I was riding 20 years ago, I think they must still have been p****d from lunch.”

Bridgwater, who recorded 473 winners in England and abroad when in the saddle, later apologised for his comments and has taken the punishment dished out.

He said: “The people down there couldn’t have been nicer and it’s fine.”