The rehearing of the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary case against the trainer Jim Best, who is alleged to have ordered a jockey deliberately to stop his horses, has been delayed for a further two months until a provisional date of 21 November after Best’s legal team successfully challenged the BHA’s attempt to open the case on 19 September.
Best, whose stable is based in Lewes in Sussex, was banned from racing for four years in April and described as a “dishonest individual who corrupted a young man” following the conclusion of the original case against him. The ban followed a finding by a disciplinary panel in February that the trainer had ordered Paul John, a former jockey at his yard who gave evidence to the hearing, not to ride two of his horses on their merits in December 2015.
However, the ban was quashed on appeal a few weeks later because of the appearance of possible bias in the proceedings after it emerged that Matthew Lohn, the panel’s chairman, had undertaken paid work for the regulator over the preceding two years. The appeal panel also found that the original panel had not dealt “adequately or at all with crucial aspects” of the trainer’s evidence and ordered a rehearing of the charges against him.
As a result of the latest delay in establishing a date for the rehearing the case will now take place after the publication of a report by Christopher Quinlan QC, which will review the operation of the BHA’s disciplinary procedures. Best’s legal team had previously suggested that the attempt to schedule the rehearing on 22 September was to allow the BHA “one more go at Mr Best before it is forced to clean up its act”.
Five days have been set aside for the rehearing, while the new panel appointed to consider the case will also convene on 7 October to consider any challenges to its makeup from Best’s lawyers.
Robin Mounsey, the BHA’s media manager, said on Tuesday: “The BHA had provisionally scheduled a rehearing date for 19 September and a provisional disciplinary panel for the rehearing. It was made very clear that Mr Best had the opportunity to challenge the timing and the constitution of the panel should he so wish and that, in the interests of fairness, any challenges would be placed into the hands of the disciplinary panel, rather than the BHA executive.
“Such a challenge was considered today by the chair of the proposed panel, William Norris QC, who has determined that the rehearing should be arranged provisionally for 21 November for five days. Mr Norris also outlined that a further hearing should be scheduled for 7 October to consider any challenges from Mr Best to the panel’s appointment and composition.
“The BHA has acted appropriately by asking the disciplinary panel to rule on any issues related to the timing of the rehearing. We have always said that our objective throughout has been to ensure a fair process is followed.”
Meanwhile Jim Crowley started Tuesday as the 2-7 favourite to win the Flat jockeys’ championship but the defending champion, Silvestre de Sousa, cut his lead in the title race from five winners to only two with a treble from six rides at Leicester.
Crowley drew a blank from three rides at Redcar and is now a 4-9 chance to win the title for the first time, while de Sousa, who could be backed at 11-4 before his treble on Hay Chewed (3-1), Chevalier Du Lac (2-1) and Faithful Mount (5-1), is now top-priced at 9-4.
