High Court to hear judicial review over Tony Martin’s three-month licence suspension

Trainer Tony Martin has applied to the High Court for a judicial review of the case that prompted a three-month suspension of his licence by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB), which is due to begin on Wednesday. The appeal is to be heard on Tuesday afternoon.

The Meath-based trainer, a multiple Cheltenham Festival winner, was handed the suspension in March after the IHRB successfully appealed against the leniency of an original sanction handed to Martin for breaching anti-doping rules in 2023.

At an original IHRB referrals panel hearing in December, Martin was fined a total of €11,000 and handed a six-month licence suspension that was suspended for two years on the back of his horse, Firstman, failing a drugs test after winning at Dundalk in January of 2023.

Firstman won a handicap as a 13-8 favourite only to subsequently test positive for lidocaine, a local anaesthetic used to block pain that is a prohibited substance on race day. Firstman was the third Martin-trained winner in four years to fail a drugs test.

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Both the trainer and the IHRB appealed the penalties, on the basis, respectively, of severity and leniency. When those appeals were heard, a panel chaired by Justice Peter Kelly ruled that only half of Martin’s original six-month suspension should be suspended. The fines were unchanged.

The three-month ban is due to end on August 15th, which means Martin will not be able to have runners at the Galway festival. Among his long list of big-race successes are four victories in the prestigious Galway Hurdle.

After Firstman’s failed drugs test, an unannounced inspection of Martin’s premises was carried out. Hair and blood samples were taken from nine horses, including Firstman. All results were negative.

At the original hearing, Martin said he didn’t know where the prohibited substance had come from but put forward a defence that it could have been from contaminated paper bedding at Dundalk when Firstman was stabled there. That was rejected by the panel.

The referrals body said it was invited by the IHRB to infer that the lidocaine was deliberately administered but concluded there had been no deliberate doping. It said on the balance of probabilities it was unable to say how Firstman came to test positive for the drug.

Martin, who won the 2001 Irish Grand National with Davids Lad, saddled a winner at Chester on Friday. He has entered two horses for Wednesday’s meeting at Tipperary and has made three declarations for Thursday’s fixture at Perth in Scotland.

It is unclear whether a judicial review application will result in a “stay” on any suspension pending a decision.

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