Unpredictable panels delivering feeble penalties don’t help deterrent factor

At a time when charges of predictability intensify around Willie Mullins’s singular dominance at the Dublin Racing Festival it is ultimately in no one’s interest how arbitrary some of the verdicts delivered by Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board referrals and appeals panels seem to be.

A couple of weeks after trainer Thomond O’Mara got a three-year licence suspension for abusing, intimidating and physically assaulting an IHRB official – yet still had the ban suspended – came another panel decision that left many scratching their heads.

Last Friday, the IHRB published the verdict of a case involving the promising novice Asian Master and the circumstances of him failing a drugs test after winning a point-to-point meeting last February.

Then trained by Tony Costello, Asian Master tested positive for the corticosteroid Dexamethasone, a commonly used medication used to treat lameness and respiratory disease, but a prohibited substance on race day.

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It is the inconsistent and discretionary nature of these referral hearings that has become a more substantive issue

The IHRB learned of the positive test 11 days after the point-to-point. Regulatory officials carried out an unannounced inspection of Costello’s premises 12 days later. The trainer didn’t request a B-sample test.

Despite that, it wasn’t until December that a panel got appointed, and they met 10 days before Christmas with barrister Susan Ahern chairing.

Costello, who has held a licence for over 30 years, and trains only three horses, explained that Asian Master was treated for an inflammatory airway problem with one substance while a stable companion was getting dexamethasone. Both were treated by a nebulizer.

The panel accepted cross-contamination could have occurred and were satisfied it was more than probable the wrong medication was unknowingly administered. Nevertheless, disqualification was inevitable. But there was nothing inevitable about the panel’s decision to waive the minimum €1,000 fine it had imposed on Costello.

Their reasons included his full co-operation, the small scale of Costello’s “five-star” yard, remorse for the mix-up, a spotless record, embarrassment suffered, and how he had waited four years to run Asian Master at his local point-to-point and wouldn’t have done anything to jeopardise that.

All of which is fair enough to an extent; except the bottom line is that the horse failed a dope test. He won a race he shouldn’t have, and with a not insignificant medication in his system. The IHRB’s case to the panel was that it was a first-time offence and asked only for a €1,000 fine due to “the need to uphold the anti-doping rules of the sport”. But even that token slap on the wrist didn’t occur.

Under the rules, panels are entitled to waive fines. They have discretion to apply penalties as they see fit. But even in circumstances where drugs are administered unknowingly, and all reasonable precautions are taken, what kind of deterrent signal does such a decision send out.

To compound matters, the decision wasn’t published until seven weeks after the hearing. The Sunday Independent inquired about the case last week, asking why no information was in the public domain yet, and joined dots between its own query and subsequent publication.

Considering the IHRB’s handling of the Homer Scott welfare case, it was hardly the most far-fetched theory, although those familiar with the regulator’s relaxed instincts towards releasing information might suspect carelessness rather than conspiracy.

Still, even allowing for Christmas, documents needing to be legalled, and parties being informed, seven weeks between a hearing and publication of a relatively straightforward outcome is too long. But it is the inconsistent and discretionary nature of these referral hearings that has become a more substantive issue.

The outcome of an appeal by apprentice jockey Hugh Horgan was also released last Friday, just four days after the hearing took place. Horgan had appealed a 16-day whip ban under totting up rules after a ride at Dundalk last month, arguing he had gone one strike over the limit for corrective purposes.

The panel hearing the case, chaired by solicitor Robert Dore, listened and hit Horgan with two separate €1,000 fines on the basis that his appeal was frivolous and his evidence misleading. All of which is fair enough too; but getting tough with a young claimer like that makes for a stark contrast with the apparent lenience handed to Costello.

The independence of such panels is crucial to their role in the regulatory process. It is a process that has plainly and publicly been struggling for credibility in recent years and although the IHRB continues to try and reform into a truly meaningful police force for a €2.4 billion industry, it continues to be bedevilled by a capacity for shooting itself in the foot.

From an outside perspective, actively opting to not apply even the minimum reprimand available for failing a dope test looks far too cosy a move in an environment often stereotypically dismissed as a closed shop for those who prefer their regulation more feather-lite than ferocious.

Ferocity isn’t always appropriate, but feebleness never is. And while appeal and referrals panels are designed to be independent, they are also part of a broader regulatory picture that is supposed to provide a believable deterrent. Such unpredictability of outcome hardly helps that task.

Something for the weekend

The potential National Hunt Chase contender NICK ROCKETT (3.45) could get a first try at three miles in Navan’s Grade Two Ten Up Novice Chase on Sunday. If he gets a green light, then the step up in trip likely will suit a horse that easily broke his duck over fences at Fairyhouse on New Year’s Day.

Fairyhouse has been home from home for WHERE’S FRANKIE (4.15) with his previous nine starts all occurring there. The last of them was on Wednesday when runner up over a trip possibly short of his best. But three miles around Navan on testing ground might prove right up his street.