The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has issued what is believed to be its longest ban in recent times, finding trainer Ronan McNally guilty of multiple integrity breaches, reports the Racing Post. The IHRB's referrals committee published its report on Jan. 31, 2023, announcing the 12-year ban and a fine of €50,000 as well as the return of over €13,000 in prize-money.
“The committee regards the findings against Mr. McNally as very serious,” the report stated. “His offences strike at the integrity and the objective of having a level playing field for all who send horses out to race. They also involved a deception of the public, especially the betting public.”
In December 2022, the committee found McNally had “used the racecourse as a training ground and schooled in public with the objective of acquiring a lenient official handicap rating for his horses,” and was deemed to have achieved “a pattern of improvement in form of horses at a level previously unfamiliar to experienced and long-serving handicapping officials.”
Several of McNally's sanctions related to the races of jumps performers Dreal Deal and The Jam Man. The committee found that McNally passed on information about Dreal Deal to allow others to profit from betting on the horse.
McNally was also found to have concealed his ownership of horses in other training yards and orchestrated a “manipulation of their official handicap ratings.”
Trainer David Dunne was found guilty in 36 cases in which All Class, Full Noise, and Petrol Head ran in his name while McNally's ownership of the horses was concealed. Dunne was handed a two-year suspension of his license, with the final 18 months of that suspended for two years, as well as a €5,000 fine and forfeiture of prize-money that was deemed to have been won by illicit means.
Four others were sanctioned due to their roles in the integrity breaches: point-to-point handler Ciaran Fennessy and jockeys Darragh O'Keeffe, Eoin O'Brien and Mark Enright. Fennessy received a three-year ban, with the final two years suspended for a period of five years, as well as a €5,000 fine. O'Brien was suspended 21 race days, while Enright and O'Keefe were both cautioned as to their “duty to report.”
Read more at the Racing Post, and find the full IHRB report here.
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