Shark Hanlon has license suspension reduced to six months – The Irish Times

Manager John ‘Shark’ Hanlon has been partially successful in an appeal against the severity of his recent ban, which has been reduced from 10 months to six, with the possibility of it being reduced further to three months.

Hanlon, who trained last year’s King George VI Chase hero Hewick, was deemed by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s References Committee to have acted in a manner that ” caused significant damage to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of the sport of racing.” ” in removing a dead horse from his yard earlier this year.

The horse was transported in an open trailer that was towed by the Hanlon brand horse box, with the body left on display to the public after a tarpaulin became dislodged during the journey.

A member of the public recorded the incident and it was shared widely on social media, attracting further media attention and prompting the IHRB to press charges against Hanlon, saying the conduct “brought an opprobrium significant audience and adverse comments” for both the trainer personally and the trainer. races in general.

Hanlon appealed the severity of the penalty, which was due to start on December 1, and had already unsuccessfully tried to delay the start of the ban until April to give him time to prepare a legal case and make specific commercial agreements.

Hanlon thought the punishment could have been a monetary fine, but the appeals committee rejected this, saying Hanlon’s conduct “crossed the threshold of attracting only a financial penalty”.

The trainer’s second criticism was the length of the suspension, as he felt the differences between it and other similar cases, specifically those of trainer Gordon Elliott and jockey Rob James, had not been taken into account. banned for 12 months each with six and eight months suspended respectively.

Giving its verdict on the appeal, the court said: “Having considered all the evidence and arguments, we have come to the conclusion that the References Committee should have set a shorter tenure penalty of six months in this case to account for a great difference between the conduct of Mr. Hanlon and that of Messrs. Elliott and James.

“In their cases, the disrespect shown to the carcass of the dead animal in each case was deliberate and willful. Mr. Hanlon’s was not. He was negligent though to a great extent. We do not believe that reducing the holder’s penalty from a 12-month license withdrawal to 10 months adequately addresses this large difference.

“It must also be borne in mind that Mr Hanlon’s negligence occurred in a single activity of relatively short duration. It should not be considered that negligence as distinct from a deliberate act could not attract a license withdrawal of 10 or even 12 months in appropriate circumstances. If there had been continuing acts of negligence here, the 10 month figure might be justified.

“However, this was not the case and therefore we believe that the main figure of six months of withdrawal is correct.”

Hanlon’s training license will be withdrawn for a period of six months from December 1 and the References Committee may consider an application to conditionally suspend the final three months of the six-month withdrawal penalty.