Trainer banned until 2016 for 'ringer' attempt

No matter how hard authorities try to stamp down on identity fraud, human or equine, there is always someone willing to try to pass themselves, or their horse, off as another.

Yesterday the point-to-point owner and trainer Robert Tierney found that the attempt to run the gelding Max'*Limbo, who had raced under Rules, in place of an unregistered hunter, Quintin, at the Charm Park meeting in April 2006 brought a severe penalty. The trainer was warned off until February 2016 by the disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority.

Tierney is already serving a six-year ban for a similar offence and was yesterday warned off for a further five years. However, three years of the suspension will run concurrently so effectively a further two-year ban has been imposed.

Max'*Limbo's owner, the former National Hunt rider Roger Marley, was also implicated in the case and he has been warned off for two and a half years although specific conditions are attached to protect his sales and pre-training business. Marley's wife, Ruth, was also banned for one year, with Charles Gundry, the horse's intended rider, picking up the same penalty.

Running a "ringer" in a race is one of the oldest scams in racing's book of tricks, with the most infamous case being the Derby of 1844, when the race was won by the four-year-old Maccabeus who had been substituted for the three-year-old Running Rein.

The In The Money case of 1978 and Flockton Grey scam of 1982 are rather more recent attempts to bring off a coup with a better horse than the one listed on the racecard, but the advent of equine passports should have brought that era to a close.

In this case Gundry had weighed out and was ready to ride but was prevented from doing so when a passport check identified that his mount was not Quintin.

The disciplinary panel decided that Gundry was "a man of otherwise good character" who "fell in with bad company", while Ruth Marley had "no previous findings against her and was not central to this conspiracy being hatched. She did not financially gain from these activities and, as with her husband, will suffer from the loss of their business."

Robert Tierney, however, had already been banned for running a ringer at two points in February 2006 and the panel's view was that he "possessed a persistent and wilful disregard for the fundamental principles of the rules which underpin racing."

An unusual feature in this case was the absence of a compelling motive to undertake the switch. From the evidence produced regarding the betting on the day there was no attempt to undertake a betting coup. Other suggestions regarding the desire to "get at the [local] hunt's hierarchy" or to provide the retiring [hunt] Master with a good mount for his send-off race did not, in the panel's view, provide a credible motive.

Meanwhile, back on the straight and wide expanses of Newmarket persistent heavy rain has turned the going to the slow side of good for tomorrow's first day of the July Festival meeting.

The opening highlight of the three-day fixture is the Group One Falmouth Stakes for which the French filly Darjina heads the betting after her narrow defeat by Haradasun in the Queen Anne Stakes at Royal Ascot. Coral make her a 9-4 chance, with the Cheveley Park Stud-owned pair, Infallible and Heaven Sent, next in the betting at 5-1 and 11-2 respectively, ahead of Finsceal Beo at 6-1.

FALMOUTH STAKES (Newmarket, tomorrow) Coral: 9-4 Darjina, 5-1 Infallible, 11-2 Heaven Sent, 6-1 Finsceal Beo, 8-1 Majestic Roi, Seachange, 11-1 Briseida, 12-1 Nahoodh, 25-1 Lady Gloria, 33-1 Kasumi, 66-1 Love Of Dubai, 150-1 Hip.

JULY CUP (Newmarket, Friday) Coral: 100-30 Kingsgate Native, 4-1 (from 5-1) Marchand D'Or, 6-1 War Artist, 8-1 Sir Gerry, 11-1 US Ranger, 14-1 Jupiter Pluvius, Utmost Respect, 16-1 Benbaun, Zidane, 20-1 others.

BUNBURY CUP (Newmarket, Friday) Coral: 5-1 Musaalem, 7-1 Zaahid, 8-1 Kings Apostle, 9-1 (from 12-1) Mastership, 10-1 Artimino, 11-1 Damika, 12-1 Dhaular Dhar, Lovelace, We'll Come, 14-1 Laa Rayb, Regal Parade, 16-1 others.

Chris McGrath

Nap: The Last Bottle

(Southwell 7.40)

NB: Bentley

(Wolverhampton 4.45)

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