The ‘disrepute’ charge is not fit for purpose in an age when the image of the trainer and his dead horse can be seen by millions
Three members of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s referrals committee will convene at 9.30am on Friday to attempt what is, almost certainly, an impossible task.
Since Saturday morning untold millions in Ireland, Great Britain and around the world have seen the grotesque image of the trainer Gordon Elliott astride a dead horse on his gallops. It is the committee’s job to determine the extent to which his action, and the fact it was recorded and widely published more than a year later, was “prejudicial … to the good reputation of horse racing”. It then needs to impose a fair, proportionate punishment on one of the most famous and successful trainers in the sport.
