Carter's Far East ban appeal

London-born jockey Gary Carter is hoping the Jockey Club will look kindly on him later today over a 12-month ban imposed in Singapore which threatens to leave his career in ruins.

Carter, currently in the Far East on a six-month contract, was handed the swingeing suspension for "failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures" to ensure that a horse called Bright Wonder achieved the best possible placing in a sprint at Kranji racecourse last week.

The ban was imposed with immediate effect last Thursday, but Carter is adamant that he was guilty of no offence and is sending a video of the race to the Jockey Club in Portman Square in the hope that racing's officials will throw him a lifeline.

He said: "This is a horse who has run 25 times and won only one race on the grass. He got left in this particular race, so I chose to ride him like I would in England, and although he flashed home to finish sixth he was probably flattered quite a lot to beat three horses who were pulled up and two whose jockeys stood up once beaten."

A year is the minimum sentence for so-called non-trying offences in Singapore, but Carter feels that he has been the victim of a crackdown imposed by a new steward on the Singapore scene.

"They call him the hangman.

He's been to Macau, where he's been quite ruthless, and he's also left a list of trainers who have gone by the wayside in Malaysia," he added.