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BHA advised to clarify guidelines
- Updated: December 14, 2016
Guidelines for penalties handed out for anyone found guilty of the same offences as Jim Best should be made clearer, according to the disciplinary panel responsible for punishing the Lewes trainer.
Best was suspended for six months by the independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority on Monday for instructing conditional jockey Paul John to deliberately not win on two horses, and for conduct prejudicial to horseracing.
In its written reasons for the penalty, the panel suggests the BHA amends its guidelines.
The statement from the three-man panel of Sir William Gage, William Norris QC and Nicholas Wachman, said: “In reaching that decision, we gained only limited assistance from the guidelines as to the length of that suspension.
“As a comment, we suggest that if the BHA regards suspension or disqualification for a longer period as appropriate for such a case as the present, then it would be wise were the guidelines to reflect that policy directly and with clarity.
“Speaking for ourselves, we can see that might better reflect the gravity of the kind of misconduct we find here.”
The panel’s decision followed the rehearing of the case into the running and riding of two horses in December last year.
The panel ruled Best – who was disqualified for four years at the original hearing chaired by Matthew Lohn before that judgment was quashed on appeal over the perception of possible bias and insufficient nature of the original panel’s reasons – had instructed John to ride Echo Brava and Missile Man other than on their merits and that they were …
