Allen rides double but cops a suspension

Melbourne’s leading apprentice Ben Allen has added another two city wins to his season tally at Caulfield but has also fallen foul of stewards and been suspended for 12 meetings.

Allen rode a race-to-race double at Saturday’s meeting to take his season tally in Melbourne to 25 wins, moving him to third on the overall jockeys’ premiership behind Dwayne Dunn (29) and Craig Williams (28).

His victories came aboard the Darren Weir-trained Plein Ciel and stablemate Burning Front but he was later hit with a double suspension for careless riding aboard In Fairness in the final race.

Stewards issued two charges against Allen, firstly for shifting in and tightening Beau Merten’s horse Our Bottino at the 1100m mark of the 1400m race.

They also charged him with shifting in when not fully clear of Our Bottino at the 1000m mark and at the same time reducing the speed of the race, resulting in Our Bottino being severely checked.

Allen pleaded guilty to both charges.

Stewards issued a 10-meeting ban for the first incident and 12 meetings for the second to be served concurrently.