THE Sean Graham bookmaker firm was adamant yesterday that it will not be sponsoring any more racing in Ireland following a dispute with the Turf Club over a bill for £32.
The decision not to sponsor any more races stands despite a statement yesterday from Cahir O'Sullivan, chief executive of the Turf Club.
Brian Graham, on course representative for the Belfast firm, said yesterday: "The situation remains the same and for the foreseeable future, we will not be sponsoring any more races. We are really annoyed at the way we were treated by the Turf Club over such a small amount of money. Their interpretation of what happened is certainly different to ours and we have the proof."
The problem arose when one of the Graham's horses, Handsome Anthony, was entered for Down Royal on St Stephen's Day. Graham maintain that the Turf Club rang a week before the race to say that the entry would be refused because its account was £32 in arrears. The matter was resolved when they sent the Turf Club a payment of £1,000.
In a statement yesterday, O'Sullivan said: "The publicity, surrounding this matter implies' the Turf Club refused entry to the Sean Graham Organisation because of arrears of IR£32 in their account. This is not accurate.
"The entry for the horse, Handsome Anthony, was accepted and he subsequently ran in the Archie Watson Memorial Corinthian Flat Race at Down Royal on 26th October last.
"On receipt of the initial entry, a Registry Office staff member noted the arrears on the account and in line with standard practice advised the Sean Graham Organisation that arrears must be cleared for an entry to proceed. On receiving a verbal assurance that this would be done, the entry was accepted in the normal way.
"At worst we were too diligent, but standard practices are good practices when dealing with a large volume of transactions, particularly in relation to credit control.
"As soon as I was made aware that our actions had caused offence, I rang Brendan Hayes of the Sean Graham Organisation immediately to apologise, as did our head of accounts.
"It is a matter of deep regret to the Turf Club that race sponsorship should be lost in this manner."
