Champion jumps trainer Martin Pipe and bookmaker Barry Dennis were yesterday fined £1,000 and £250 respectively by the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee for contravening the rules over claiming horses.
The committee inquired into whether or not Pipe, his employees Craig Wylie and Eamon Leigh, Dennis and his workman Alan Timms had committed breaches concerning three horses last year: Newscaster at Sandown on August 20th plus Duello and Port Meadow at Leicester on October 12th.
They found Pipe guilty as regards Port Meadow and Dennis guilty in the case of Newscaster. Wylie, Leigh and Timms had no action taken against them.
As he left the six-and-a-half-hour-long inquiry, Pipe said: "I had a very fair hearing and was found not guilty on five counts. I am delighted."
Ironically, during the afternoon, Duello, one of the horses concerned in the inquiry won the selling race at Bath for Pipe.
Dennis treated the judgment as a victory, raising his arm in triumph as he left the Portman Square headquarters of the Jockey Club.
The case concerned the role allegedly played by Pipe in the claiming of Newscaster, formerly trained by Paul Cole, and Michael Blanshard's Duello and Roger Charlton's Port Meadow after that pair finished first and second in the race at Leicester.
