Apprentice Matt McGillivray gets a stay

In-form Queensland apprentice Matt McGillivray has been granted a stay on an order to increase a suspension he received after being outed by stewards last month.

McGillivray was originally suspended for 10 days when found guilty of causing interference in a race at Townsville on June 20.

Stewards found McGillivray had excessively restrained his mount Harjaka causing several runners to suffer interference.

McGillivray argued he was riding to instructions to restrain his mount but when no-one else wanted to lead he was left in front.

He sought an internal review and adjudicator Kane Post last week upheld the stewards decision but also increased the suspension to 11 days.

McGillivray’s lawyer Matt Tutt lodged an appeal against the internal review decision at the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal and was granted a stay pending the hearing.

“It is a matter of natural justice. We will be arguing that we were not given a chance to speak about a possible increase of sentence,” Tutt said.

“It isn’t clear when the matter will be heard as it depends on QCAT’s work load.”

Another of Tutt’s clients, trainer Darlene Duryea, has also been granted a stay from QCAT pending her appeal on a 12-month disqualification for a cobalt offence.