Controversy has marred the 200m quarter-horse time trial, with Knudsen, the jockey and trainer of runner-up Seductive Fame, claiming the winner should be disqualified.

Knudsen was gunning for back-to-back victories in the event, but had to be content with second place to the Paul Edwards-trained Casey.

In its 13th edition, Knudsen’s five-year-old sprinter Seduction Fame ran a track record of 11.52 only to be bettered by 0.04 seconds by Casey and miss out on the $5000 cash prize for the winner.

The Taroom-based cowgirl said it was frustrating to see the Mount Isa Race Club event organisers, once again, pave the way for horses that, on condition, should not be permitted to participate in the annual quarter horse sprint.

“It’s so blatantly wrong because the rules are still the way they are,” Knudsen said.

“But I knew that they had allowed a fair few open sprint racing horses to come anyway.”

The nomination form of the event states applicants to the Mailman Express cannot be a registered race horse, of a thoroughbred breed, and also must not have raced for prize money or reward in the last five years.

“People don’t want to bring horses now because they know that they’re letting these professional guys slip in there and don’t have a chance anymore,” Knudsen said.

It’s no surprise why the two-time Mailman Express champion trainer feels let down by Mount Isa Race Club as the 2015 eventual winner Casey, had already raced competitively this year.

Casey not only participated but claimed victory in June’s Normanton rodeo 200-metre sprint dash, beating runner-up Fearless, who also raced in this year’s Mailman Express, and Chick Ching Cash in third place. 

“I’m not afraid of competition. But because I follow the rules, my horses have never raced,” Knudsen said.

“If you are a racehorse trainer you generally wouldn’t put a horse that has never raced amongst a field of Melbourne Cup winners. Basically, that’s pretty much what happened to us.”

But Knudsen’s case doesn’t stop there.

“Incidentally, I found out later that the girl (Juanita Smerdon) that rode him for the re-run and for the final is still a licensed jockey.”

The name Juanita Smerdon is listed as a registered jockey on the Racing Australia website.

With already two cards to play with, Knudsen added another point of query in reference to Casey’s first run last Thursday night, which resulted in the sprinter crashing out.

“They (horses) are meant to run between the timed finishing posts to get their time.”

“But Casey ran off, over it, and hurt that jockey really badly. It went off-course and should have been disqualified. Then for the winning horse to be wearing racing blinkers when no racing attire is allowed.” A photo of Casey taken on the night shows the horse evidently wearing blinkers.

The late replacement of the injured jockey with apprentice jockey Smerdon signalled Knudsen to confront the Mount Isa Race Club at the conclusion of the event, although she still didn’t have her way.

“They said the reason why they let the horse run was because Juanita Smerdon was also riding two other horses.”

“It meant they would have to pull out the two other horses as well. I thought that was a bit of nonsense. It seemed like the first thing that they can think of.”

Knudsen is more eager than ever for the Mount Isa Race Club hierarchy to start cracking down on the obvious discrepancies in one of Mount Isa’s most popular events on the calendar.

“In the past, they have policed the event well. It’s just in the last couple of years that they’ve let it slip a bit with these experienced horses coming in just because the numbers have been declining.”

However Knudsen may have a future solution for her injustice.

The proposition of two categories – non-racehorse and racehorse – is one initiative that comes to mind to the quarter horse trainer for the current guidelines to adopt.

“They could run the event the exactly the same way, but all they would have to do is categorise each horse. It’s as simple as that.

“For example, if they would put my horse into the category of an un-raced horse. He (Seductive Fame) might have got the second fastest time, but he still could have won the fastest un-raced horse of the night.”

Knudsen also suggested an American-style system to be implemented where non-racehorses would still receive more prize money for their efforts.

The entourage of runner-up Seduction Fame is now hoping that history may repeat itself once again.

“I reminded them they had done it before about three years ago when they disqualified a previous winner a week after and got the correct prize money handed down to the runner-up.”

There is already precedent for a declared winner to be disqualified, with Knudsen believing a horse was stripped of the race previously.

Attempts to contact the Mount Isa Race Club for comment were unsuccessful.