Racing: Maguire is hit by three-day whip ban

THERE WAS more disappointment for Adrian Maguire yesterday when he received a three-day whip ban for his ride on runner-up Ardrina at Kelso.

The suspension takes effect at the end of next week, meaning that he will miss the big fixtures at Ascot and at Aintree - unless he makes a successful appeal.

The Kelso stewards found Maguire guilty of using his whip with excessive frequency from the third-last fence. The mare, the 13-8 on favourite, failed to catch all-the-way winner, Sniper, by a length.

Maguire said: "I'll have to have a look into appealing after that. I can't believe I got done as I felt I gave the mare time to respond between hits."

The jockey appears to be a little less popular at Jackdaws Castle, where he is No 1 rider for the David Nicholson stable. Nicholson was unhappy with Maguire's riding of defeated stable star Escartefigue at Wetherby last week.

In his Racing Post column at the weekend, the trainer said that ``Adrian made too much use of the horse''. Nicholson added that he wished he could ``somehow have got on the phone to Adrian'' during the Wetherby race.