Charlie Swan, Paul Carberry, Conor O'Dwyer and Pat Malone, the four riders who finished a distance behind Limestone Lad in the Woodies Hurdle at Leopardstown yesterday, were each fined £250 by the stewards and ordered to forfeit their riding fees.

The stewards imposed the penalties under Rule 212(i) which states that all reasonable measures must be taken to give a horse full opportunity to obtain its best possible placing.

Limestone Lad raced over a furlong clear of his four opponents for most of the race, easily justified odds of 1 to 6 and was never threatened as he made all the running.

The four jockeys fined were angry with the stewards decision and said they will appeal the fines.

Swan said afterwards: "We are talking about horses rated four stone less than Limestone Lad. If I had tried to go his gallop I'd have had to pull up three out. Istabraq didn't lie up with Limestone Lad and when Le Coudray tried to he finished knackered.

"From a trainer's point of view there were very few runners set for the race and I'd have thought we should have got a medal for running. We're all very annoyed about it."

The late Tim Forster would have enjoyed the events at Chepstow yesterday as course specialist Edmond produced a perfect round of jumping to record a spectacular all-the-way success in the Coral Welsh National. And no one would be happier that his protege, Henry Daly, who has held a licence for just 18 months, achieved a victory in the £70,000 contest at such an early stage in his career.

Edmond - under Richard Johnson - relished the testing underfoot conditions to gallop his 15 rivals into the ground before coming home 10 lengths ahead of Forest Ivory, with Earthmover, whose stable-mate Flaked Oats finished fourth, a further three and a half lengths back in third at the end of the stamina-sapping extended three miles, five furlongs.