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The disciplinary panel for trainer Jim Best, who was on Monday handed a six-month suspension for instructing conditional jockey Paul John to stop two horses last December, said on Wednesday that it “gained only limited assistance” from British Horseracing Authority guidelines, and suggested the BHA amend its guidelines should it deem a longer suspension for such an offence to be more appropriate. “Speaking for ourselves, we can see that might better reflect the gravity of the kind of misconduct we find here,” the panel’s statement read.
Best was initially suspended for four years when found guilty of the same charges in February, but that verdict was thrown out and the case re-tried when it was discovered that Matthew Lohn, chairman of the original disciplinary panel, had worked with the BHA on other matters, resulting in the appearance of a bias.
The disciplinary panel said it took into account the financial toll on Best over the ensuing 10 months when arriving at its penalty.
“We heard and we accept that, regardless of the expenses involved in legal representation, the case has already had serious consequences for Mr. Best’s business and that the number of horses in his yard has reduced from over 30 to 13 during the course of the last 12 months,” the statement read. It also cited the negative impact on Best’s employees who are free of wrongdoing.
The panel was also critical of Best’s handling of the situation, in which he attempted to place blame on John.
“Mr. Best persisted in denying his wrongdoing and pursued a strategy of characterising Mr. John as a liar who, for his own base reasons, had decided to blame the trainer whilst attempting to conceal his shortcomings as a character and as a jockey,” the statement read. “That strategy has failed and we have found that Mr. John rode as he did because those were Mr Best’s instructions. The worst feature of the case is the fact that Mr. Best, the trainer, suborned a young Conditional Jockey to do wrong when he should have been taking steps to guide him in the right direction as opposed to engaging in dishonest practices.”
In another development in the case, Racing Post reported on Wednesday that Best’s wife, Suzie Best, has submitted an application for a training license in order to take over the yard. A BHA spokesman told the publication it would “neither confirm nor deny speculation around licensing applications as they are private matters.”
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Best was initially suspended for four years when found guilty of the same charges in February, but that verdict was thrown out and the case re-tried when it was discovered that Matthew Lohn, chairman of the original disciplinary panel, had worked with the BHA on other matters, resulting in the appearance of a bias.
The disciplinary panel said it took into account the financial toll on Best over the ensuing 10 months when arriving at its penalty.
“We heard and we accept that, regardless of the expenses involved in legal representation, the case has already had serious consequences for Mr. Best’s business and that the number of horses in his yard has reduced from over 30 to 13 during the course of the last 12 months,” the statement read. It also cited the negative impact on Best’s employees who are free of wrongdoing.
The panel was also critical of Best’s handling of the situation, in which he attempted to place blame on John.
“Mr. Best persisted in denying his wrongdoing and pursued a strategy of characterising Mr. John as a liar who, for his own base reasons, had decided to blame the trainer whilst attempting to conceal his shortcomings as a character and as a jockey,” the statement read. “That strategy has failed and we have found that Mr. John rode as he did because those were Mr Best’s instructions. The worst feature of the case is the fact that Mr. Best, the trainer, suborned a young Conditional Jockey to do wrong when he should have been taking steps to guide him in the right direction as opposed to engaging in dishonest practices.”
In another development in the case, Racing Post reported on Wednesday that Best’s wife, Suzie Best, has submitted an application for a training license in order to take over the yard. A BHA spokesman told the publication it would “neither confirm nor deny speculation around licensing applications as they are private matters.”
Continue reading...