PAUL O’NEILL rides regularly for one of the world’s great cricketers but he was aping a disgraced footballing idol when headbutting a skittish racehorse at Stratford on Sunday. The jump jockey now faces a disciplinary inquiry by the Horseracing Regulatory Authority (HRA) and potentially a private prosecution by the RSPCA.

O’Neill, 26, is retained to ride the growing string of jumps horses owned by the entrepreneur Paul Beck, some of which are part-owned by Andrew Flintoff. Both men speak highly of O’Neill’s talent but the jockey is in hot water over an escalating horse-welfare row.

He was apparently angered by the behaviour of City Affair before a lowly novices’ selling hurdle. The horse played up in the paddock, then unseated the jockey at the start, at which point O’Neill — still in riding helmet — appeared to butt his mount in a manner drawing inevitable comparisons to the World Cup final attack by Zinédine Zidane.

The incident was seen live by tens of thousands of viewers of Attheraces, the dedicated racing channel. However, as no footage was available to the Stratford stewards, their only immediate action was to caution O’Neill for his use of the whip during the race, in which City Affair finished fourth.

Yesterday, tapes of the affair were sent to the Shaftesbury Avenue offices of the HRA and the disciplinary department, having studied them, confirmed that O’Neill had committed a breach of the rules. He must appear before a hearing next week and could, on past evidence, face a significant suspension.

Timmy Murphy once received a seven-day ban, reduced on appeal to one day, for throwing his whip at a horse. The whip missed, which O’Neill’s head-butt certainly did not.

Even a ban might not draw a line under the matter. Treatment of racehorses is a highly sensitive area and it was untimely that this news should emerge on the same day as the long-awaited report into the 11 horses that died either during the Cheltenham Festival or as a direct result of injuries received there.

That the RSPCA now work with racing, rather than agitating against it, is largely because of the constructive influence of its equine consultant, David Muir. There was no mistaking Muir’s disgust yesterday, though, with an incident that could undo so much good work over recent years.

Muir called O’Neill’s actions “stupid and juvenile” and added: “We are satisfied that the horse was not injured but it was an unacceptable way for the jockey to behave. We’ll see what action the HRA take before looking at whether we might bring a case against him ourselves.”

O’Neill, who has ridden 51 winners in his brief career and is attached to the Herefordshire yard of Venetia Williams, is already involved in a lengthy investigation into the running and riding of Sobers at Ayr in March.

Sobers, owned by Beck and trained at the time by Richard Guest, was the subject of irregular betting patterns and both Beck and O’Neill have been questioned by the HRA.