Trainer Ronan McNally loses appeal against record 12-year disqualification

Trainer Ronan McNally has lost his appeal against a record 12-year disqualification for breaching racing’s integrity rules.

The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) published the verdict of an appeals body panel chaired by Justice Peter Kelly on Wednesday evening that stood over the biggest penalty handed out by the regulator in modern times.

One concession by the panel, however, was to suspend the final four years of the disqualification although any breach of the rules by McNally in future will see the full sentence be reactivated.

The appeals body also indicated there can be some leeway in upcoming changes to rules that prevent the controversial Co Armagh trainer from going racing.

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McNally, who holds a restricted licence to train, and operates a kitchen-fitting business, had expressed dismay at the prospect of not being allowed watch his son, a promising young rider, if he was to start a career as a jockey.

Disqualification also means not being able to work in a licenced yard but Wednesday’s decision pointed to impending alterations to the disqualified person rule.

The new rules will preclude a disqualified person entry “into a racecourse, stand or enclosure other than those areas to which the general public is permitted access.”

They will also ease the restrictions on working in yards, provided applications to employ an individual are approved by the IHRB’s licencing committee.

“This new rule will lighten the burden to some extent of the 12-year suspension,” the judgement stated.

McNally received the swingeing penalties earlier this year after a long-running IHRB investigation into the improvement in form of some of his horses who were at the centre of high-profile gambles.

They included The Jam Man, a Troytown Chase winner, and Dreal Deal, who landed a major gamble at Navan in 2020 and subsequently was good enough to win a Grade Two over flights.

McNally was found guilty of a range of offences including fraudulent practise by the passing on of inside information. He was also found to have conspired with another trainer, David Dunne, to conceal ownership of horses.

As well as being disqualified, he was fined €50,000 and ordered to repay prizemoney of over €13,000 after being found to have treated the rules of racing in a cavalier manner and to have done “serious damage to the interests of horseracing in Ireland”.

McNally argued the disqualification was effectively a lifetime ban from the sport.

“I can’t see how I’m the worst person that’s ever come into Irish racing,” he said in February. “It’s a lifetime ban. I’d have to come back after 12 years and reapply for my licence, which I would probably get rejected for.”

The appeals body backed up the original referrals committee findings and concluded: “There was ample evidence for the committee to come to the conclusions which it did.

“It clearly gave a great deal of consideration to the evidence and submissions made to it and reached a conclusion justified on the evidence and admissions made.”

It added: “We endorse the views expressed by the committee as to the very serious nature of these offences and that they strike at the integrity of the sport involving, as they did, a deception of the public especially the betting public.

“The only thing that can be said in favour of the Appellant, and we give him full credit for it, is that there never was even the slightest suggestion of any improper use of drugs in facilitating this venture.”