‘Miracle’ horse Hewick’s trainer banned from attending £250,000 race amid fury over video
JOHN ‘SHARK’ HANLON’S five-month ban from racing will begin on December 1 – meaning he will miss ‘miracle’ horse Hewick’s King George title defence.
The Guinness-drinking £800 chaser stunned the Kempton crowd with his miraculous win in the big Boxing Day contest last year – taking his career earnings to more than £700,000 in the process.
But should he go for two in a row in the Christmas cracker then he will do so under a different trainer.
That’s because Hanlon has failed in his attempt to have his ten-month ban from racing deferred to start at a later date.
The famed Irish handler was whacked with a suspension after a video of a dead horse being driven through the streets was posted online.
Hanlon said he had placed tarpaulin over the carcass before the body was transported on a trailer earlier this year.
But it had come off completely during transit through Paulstown, County Kilkenny, Ireland, leaving the grim sight clear for all to see.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board ruled Hanlon had caused ‘significant prejudice to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of the sport of horse racing’.
Hanlon said an immediate start of the ban would have a catastrophic impact on his small yard and asked for it be delayed until April 1 next year.
But bosses ruled it out, saying: “The Committee decided that it saw nothing in the material submitted to justify deviation from the initial suggestion that the effective date of the sanctions should be 1 December 2024.
“The Committee acknowledged in the initial decision that these sanctions would be burdensome for Mr Hanlon in various ways.
“However, there was nothing in his circumstances to differentiate them from those of other trainers put in the same position by similar decisions in other cases.
“These cases informed the initial proposal by the Committee of a deferral to December 1, 2024.
“In summary, to defer a sanction of five or 10-months duration (depending on the ultimate approach taken by Mr Hanlon) for well over six months would tend to have the effects suggested by the IHRB and would disproportionately dilute the effect of the withdrawal sanction.
“Accordingly, the Committee confirmed that the sanctions imposed in the initial decision will take effect on December 1, 2024.”
Five months of Hanlon’s ban will be suspended if he abides by certain conditions of the ban, such as not visiting any racecourses or speaking to jockeys and trainers.
Hanlon drew criticism previously for taking Hewick into a pub and giving him a sip of Guinness after he won the American Grand National.
Hanlon is responsible from turning bargain buy Hewick into a genuine superstar of racing.
He also performed miracles with fellow cheap purchase and subsequent Grade 1-winning hurdle Skyace.
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