Top class horse racing jockey Vincent Ho has been banned for five weeks despite winning a race at Happy Valley in Hong Kong.

Ho was deemed not to have ridden his mount out fully when he finished dead-heat on 15/1 outsider Capital Delight on Wednesday. The 33-year-old jockey appeared to ask for more from the four-year-old gelding, bursting through the field into the home straight and continuously using the whip and pushing on towards the finish line.

But stewards believed that Ho didn’t continue to push all the way up to the line and claimed that he should’ve won the race rather than dead-heating with 13/1 shot Lucky Archangel who finished on the near side.

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Both Ho and other jockey Angus Chung won shares in the £59,000 prize for the Class 3 handicap race. Speaking after the race, Ho claimed his horse "stayed on strongly in the final furlong". But stewards disagreed and handed him a five week ban, citing Ho had put his whip away before the line.

A statement from the stewards regarding the incident said: "Ho was found guilty of a charge under Rule 100(2) in that he failed to ride his mount out all the way to the end of the race to the satisfaction of the stewards.

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"Having considered precedent penalties, jockey Ho's record in relation to like offences and the nature of the breach in circumstances where his mount dead-heated for first placing, the stewards believed the appropriate penalty was for Ho's licence to ride in races be suspended for a period to commence on Wednesday, October 18, 2023 and to expire on Monday, November 20, 2023."

Ho was left furious with the ban and has launched an appeal against the punishment. Top UK-based jockey Neil Callan branded the decision ‘unbelievable’ as he backed his fellow rider. Ho has amassed winnings of just under £1million from 30 rides so far this season.

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