Aged apprentice Talia Rodder has been given a six week suspension for the ride on Serene Tanie in the Corporate Interiors Australia Handicap (1500m) at Moonee Valley last Saturday.

Racing Victoria stewards found Rodder guilty of a charge under the provisions of AR135 (b) which states;

‘The rider of every horse shall take all reasonable and permissible measures throughout the race to ensure that his or her horse is given full opportunity to win or obtain the best possible place in the field.’

Stewards took evidence from Peter Jurkovsky, on behalf of Rodder, Serene Tanie’s trainer Robbie Laing, and RV form analyst, Andre Kassay, concerning the sectional times of the race.

Ms Rodder failed to make sufficient effort to restrain her mount from 1100m to passing the 600m.

Stewards noted that the first 1200 metres of a 1500 metre race was run quicker than the following  1200m event.

They noted insufficient evidence to suggest collusion by Laing to give instructions to Rodder in a manner that may have benefited the chance of his other runner,  Maquina, who won the race.

No action was taken against Laing while Rodder had her licence to ride in races suspended for a period of six weeks to commence  at midnight on 28 November 2011 and to expire at midnight on 9 January 2012.