Saturday 18th June 2016

I can confirm that we will not be appealing the decision to demote Carrigkerry as the winner of the race at Worcester on 19th May 2016, on the back of Graeme McPherson’s spuriously successful objection.

I had a very productive conversation with the Chairman of the BHA and explained that we feel that it is not our position to fight the BHA’s corner for them, but instead hope that they can rectify this sorry situation. During the whole case the BHA refused to back up their interpretation of the rule in not objecting to Carrigkerry, and instead threw me into a disciplinary hearing against the runners up trainer (Graeme McPherson QC) who is employed by the BHA and is a member of the BHA rules committee! I did ask for an adjournment so that I could have some legal representation to defend the BHA’s position but this was declined.

The BHA’s disciplinary procedure has let us down in this whole unnecessary and rather unsporting situation. We therefore cannot see why we should once again be fighting a battle which we believe the BHA should never have allowed to gain any momentum, and they should be fighting themselves. There are so many examples of where this rule is broken and nothing comes of it, and yet in our case we haven’t broken the rule, and yet lose the race. We do hope that justice will prevail in the end.

We have had so much support in all of this and I have to say that I am blessed with some wonderful owners who have all been so wholeheartedly behind me in all of this – in what can only be described as a crazy situation.

I was delighted that Sir A.P.McCoy (The champ) came out in the press to support us and I feel that David Ashforth summed it up rather nicely when he commented, “Graeme McPherson’s successful objection to Carrigkerry is testament to his acuity and legal skill but rather lacks generosity of spirit”.