Legal saga of David's Lad comes to a close

Racing: The almost two-year legal wrangle over the former Irish Grand National winner David's Lad ended yesterday with the Turf Club being awarded full High Court and Supreme Court costs.

The four owners of David's Lad formally withdrew their Supreme Court appeal yesterday on the day the case was scheduled to be publicly reopened.

It brings to a close the prolonged legal saga that the "Eddie Joe's syndicate", which is made up of Eddie Moran, James Moran, Matthew Lynch and Nicholas Butterly, brought on the back of the controversial suspension of David's Lad at Naas in February of 2003.

At the time David's Lad, whose finest hour had been winning the 2001 Irish National at Fairyhouse, was the ante-post second favourite for the Aintree Grand National that April.

But after running in the Paddy & Helen Cox Memorial Newlands Chase, the stewards decided the course had been used as a training ground and banned the horse from racing for 42 days, a suspension that ruled David's Lad out of Liverpool. His trainer, Tony Martin, was also fined £1,000 and jockey Timmy Murphy was banned for seven days.

Murphy didn't appeal the decision, and, after an Appeals and Referrals Committee hearing threw out an appeal, Martin didn't pursue his fine any further.

But it was a different story with the syndicate, who were granted a judicial review at the High Court just two weeks after the controversial race which prevented the ban from being implemented.

Less than a week after that, the Turf Club successfully argued for that injunction to be lifted, which prevented David's Lad from running in the Mildmay of Flete Chase at the Cheltenham festival.

The matter didn't end there, however, and in an attempt to free the horse to run in the Aintree National, the owners went to the Supreme Court looking for a stay on the 42-day ban.

That was turned down, with the court declaring that the obvious hardships on the owners by not running in the National had to be balanced by the serious implications for the Turf Club and the integrity of racing if the application were perceived as a successful challenge to the Turf Club's authority.

Up until yesterday the owners still had the option of a Supreme Court appeal, but the story now appears to be finally over.