One lucky punter scooped the £57,570 jackpot at Galway yesterday, but many others were left disgruntled after the first leg when the locally-trained favourite Half Barrell was thrown out of first place by the stewards.

Half Barrell, the 11 to 4 favourite, beat Choice Of Kings by a head at the finish of the three mile handicap hurdle, but the gelding drifted to his left in the closing stages.

The stewards decided Half Barrell had caused interference and improved his placing by failing to keep a straight course and intimidating the second. The positions of the first two were reversed.

It was an echo of the Grand Ambition case here in July when that horse was allowed to keep a race by the local stewards after carrying Omni Cosmo Touch across the track, only for the positions to be subsequently reversed on appeal to the Turf Club.

Half Barrell's Athenry trainer, Val O'Brien, immediately declared he would appeal the decision. "I haven't met anyone who thinks he should have lost it. The horses never touched. They were two apprentices riding on heavy ground over three miles and they never touched."

The majority of the other jackpot punters were left stunned by a series of double-figure starting prices in the remaining races.

Chanoud led on the turn in of the Hogan Handicap to beat off Chaparral Lady and No Avail, but his jockey, Fran Berry, was out of luck in the following apprentice maiden.

Berry was on the favourite McCracken, but he couldn't peg back the 12 to 1 newcomer Euro Shift.

There was one ticket on each of the 16 horses in the last leg of jackpot and it was the 16 to 1 shot Charlton Spring who overhauled Eloquent Way inside the final furlong of Great Southern Handicap.