Murphy fined but retains licence

Horse Racing: A record Turf Club fine of €4,000 has been imposed on the Co Galway trainer Richard Murphy under the horses-in-training rules.

The Turf Club's Appeals & Referrals committee imposed the penalty after investigating the circumstances surrounding the horse, Arachine.

When officials inspected Murphy's yard in Clarinbridge on January 16th, just two days before Arachine was declared to run at Cork, they found the horse was not present at the stables.

That prompted an enquiry, which was held on Wednesday, that decided Murphy was in breach of Rule 148(vi). As well as Murphy's fine, Arachine has been banned from racing for 45 days.

Critically, however, the committee have allowed Murphy to retain his licence, a move at odds with precedent as four previous infringements of the stabling rules have resulted in trainers losing their licences for a period.

The last of them was six years ago when Eoin Griffin lost his licence for three months. Other high-profile incidents concerned Willie Bourke in 1998 and James O'Keeffe, who lost his permit to train for a year in 1996 over Rathbawn Prince.

"Different panels come to different decisions and this one obviously felt that a €4,000 fine was sufficient penalty," the Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said yesterday.

When contacted yesterday afternoon, Murphy declined to comment on the matter.

As well as the fine, the trainer was also ordered by the Appeals & Referrals Committee to pay the Turf Club's solicitor's costs and those of the stenographer.

Record sums were also being mentioned at the unveiling of the 2004 Punchestown National Hunt festival yesterday.

A total of €1.7 million in prize money, up 12 per cent on last year, was announced by the Punchestown authorities for this year's festival which will run from April 27th to 30th.

The four days will have 10 Grade One races including the two-mile champion chase which will now be sponsored by Betdaq, who take over from BMW.

Murphy's Brewery continue their sponsorship of the €180,000 Heineken Gold Cup while the prize fund for the Paddy Power Champion Bumper has been doubled to €60,000.

Ballymore properties have taken over the role as title sponsor of the third day from IAWS with the feature being the €125,000 Stayers Hurdle.