The Irish trainer Paul Gilligan has been disqualified from racing for six months for running a horse at Uttoxeter that had previously competed in an unlicensed “flapping” meeting in Ireland. The ban came after the rehearing of a disciplinary case that was initially heard by a panel that included the lawyer Matthew Lohn.
The penalty handed down on Monday is identical to that issued by the earlier hearing in March, which inquired into the running of a horse called Dubawi Phantom at Uttoxeter in June 2014. Dubawi Phantom was backed at long odds and ran out a cosy half-length winner of the race at 14-1.
Along with several other inquiries on which Lohn was a panel member, including the case against the Lewes trainer Jim Best for ordering a jockey to stop his horses, the Gilligan verdict was subsequently identified as potentially unsound since Lohn had accepted payments from the British Horseracing Authority for work unrelated to disciplinary matters.
Best, who was originally banned for four years by a panel chaired by Lohn, had his licence suspended for six months when the rehearing of his case concluded last week. Best has until 5pm on Wednesday – seven days from the receipt of written reasons for the judgment – to lodge an appeal against the decision,
The BHA’s case against Gilligan, whose career includes a victory with Berties Dream in the Albert Bartlett Novice Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival in 2010, was that Dubawi Phantom had run at the unlicensed Dingle Festival in the west of Ireland in August 2013 under the name Ayres Rock.
The panel heard evidence from Nick Bowen, a BHA vet, that he had studied both photographs and video recordings of Ayres Rock and Dubawi Phantom and concluded that it was the same horse, mainly due to its unusual markings.
In addition to Gilligan’s six-month disqualification, Dubawi Phantom has been disqualified from his victory at Uttoxeter, with Donald McCain’s Red Merlin promoted to first.
The reasons for the panel’s finding and its penalty are expected to be published in the new year.
