Seven jockeys at the have been slapped with bans for "misconduct" following a series of controversial false starts, which have drawn criticism from both jockeys and trainers. The starting procedures for some races on Tuesday and Wednesday left punters disgruntled, with jockey Keith Donoghue citing poor communication and trainer Peter Scudamore branding the starts as 'an embarrassment'.

Donoghue is among those penalised after his victory on Stumptown in the Cross Country, alongside Sean Flanagan, who rode third-place finisher Vanillier, and JJ Sleven on Busselton. The stewards stated that the trio "had not approached the tape at a walk or jig-jog thereby causing a false start," resulting in one-day bans for Donoghue and Flanagan, while Slevin received a two-day ban due to a previous offence within 12 months.

The Grand Annual saw four more jockeys fall foul of the rules, with the stewards' report noting: "The Starter reported that Jordan Gainford, Danny McMenamin, Conor Stone-Walsh, Darragh O'Keeffe, and Derek Fox had not approached the tape at a walk or jig-jog thereby causing a false start."

After reviewing footage of the incident, "Gainford, McMenamin, O'Keeffe and Fox were suspended for one day for misconduct at the start."

Jockey Stone-Walsh's account that his horse locked on and was tough to hold back from bolting at the tape was deemed credible.

Meanwhile, trainer Scudamore unleashed criticism on the starts in a Facebook post, lamenting: "Cheltenham is fantastic but there are problems. The starts are an embarrassment and taking the punters for granted.

"The attitude of the stewards is to sweep the dirt under the carpet and fine the jockey, it is not solving the problem. There is no consistency, sometimes the horses are let go moving forward then another time they are stopped. It is not possible to stop some of these moving horses."

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