On Thursday, Charles Byrnes began a six-month suspension and on Sunday one of the horses previously under his care lines up for a different trainer at Leopardstown.
Wonder Laish takes part in a four-horse conditions’ event where he looks to hold a leading chance for new trainer William O’Doherty.
Like Byrnes, O’Doherty, who has had just two winners under rules since taking out his licence in 2008, is based in Ballingarry, Co Limerick. The last of his winners was the Rachael Blackmore-ridden Jump For Dough at Cork in 2017. He has enjoyed some other success in point-to- points.
Wonder Laish, a course winner on the Flat in 2017, carries his usual colours of owner, Martin White. Jockey Cathal Landers is set to ride.
His appearance comes on the back of another former Byrnes inmate, Thosedaysaregone, winning the two-mile handicap for amateur riders at Dundalk on Friday night.
Thosedaysaregone still races in the colours of Byrnes Bloodstock Ltd and was declared to run under Charles Byrnes’s son, Philip.
Byrnes began a six-month suspension of his licence on the back of the Viking Hoard controversy where the trainer was found to have been seriously negligent in leaving the horse unattended for periods of time at Tramore racecourse in 2018.
Viking Hoard was subsequently found to have been “nobbled” with a sedative by an unidentified third party and was pulled up in a race for which he had been laid to lose for a significant amount by an overseas punter on the Betfair exchange.
Byrnes’s ban runs until September 3rd. He cannot hold a trainer’s licence in that time but isn’t ‘warned off’ and can continue to work in racing.
Byrnes saddled a last winner before his ban began when Light Brigade was successful at Naas last Sunday.
