Byrnes considers appeal against 'non-trier' fine

RACING NEWS ROUND-UP:CONTROVERSIAL TRAINER Charles Byrnes believes he didn't get a fair hearing at Listowel on Saturday when he was fined €2,000 under non-trier rules for the running of Pittoni and is considering appealing the decision.

After Pittoni finished fourth in the Slan Abhaile Race for amateur riders, the Listowel stewards decided the racecourse had been used as a training ground.

As well as a fine for Byrnes, jockey Derek Fox was suspended for seven days for making insufficient effort and the horse was banned from racing for 42 days.

Byrnes was angry with the decision and insisted Pittoni, a Grade One winner over hurdles last season, had not been stopped.

Yesterday he said he was considering an appeal and accused the Turf Club of having an agenda against him.

“That is definitely the case. There’s no doubt about that. They had their minds made up before I went in. I definitely didn’t get a fair hearing,” he said.

Pittoni, a drifter in on-course betting and on the exchanges, raced in midfield in the early stages. He dropped back towards the rear of the field down the back straight before running on noticeably well in the closing stages.

“They (the stewards) had no rear-view cameras on the race, which I thought was convenient on their part. If there had been rear-view cameras they would have shown my jockey punching him along from five furlongs out,” Byrnes declared.

“I think I have until noon tomorrow to decide about an appeal so I won’t make my mind up until the morning. The only thing that’s stopping me is the economics of the whole thing. Even if I win it, financially there wouldn’t be much benefit, and if I lost, it would cost a lot more,” he added.

Yesterday, Turf Club press officer Cliff Noone denied there is any agenda against Byrnes in racing’s regulatory body.

“That is completely untrue. He has the right to appeal and if that is a route he wishes to pursue, then so be it,” he said.

Limerick-based Byrnes, one of the most high-profile National Hunt trainers in the country, on Wednesday had landed the Guinness Kerry National at Listowel with Alfa Beat.

He has also had success at the highest level in Britain with the dual-Cheltenham festival winner Weapons Amnesty, owned by Ryanair boss Michael O’Leary, and the top-class hurdler Solwhit, a six-time Grade One winner.

However, the Byrnes yard has also been caught up in some high-profile controversies in recent years, notably at Cork in 2005 when the Byrnes-trained Laetitia was banned for 60 days after finishing runner-up to her stable companion Alpha Royale in a bumper, after which jockey Michael Purcell was suspended for 50 days and fined €2,000.

The then sports minister, John O’Donoghue, said such races “only serve to hinder the positive promotion of Irish racing”.

Byrnes said he was unhappy with Purcell’s ride and had his explanations “noted”.

Earlier this year, an employee of Byrnes’, John O’Gorman, was banned from racecourses for four months after he was found guilty of laying Byrnes-trained horses on a betting exchange, an offence the Turf Club believed “seriously damages the integrity of racing”.

In a period from May to December 2008, O’Gorman was found to have laid nine Byrnes-trained runners on the exchanges, with eight losing. Solwhit was the exception, winning at Fairyhouse in November of 2008.