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Horse Racing: UK Flats


Kingman

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  • 2 weeks later...

@Rugeley Villa End of season classics this weekend across the pond. 

See AoB has sent a strong team to the US for this weekends Breeders Cup Festival. 

Rhododendron, Roly Poly, U S Navy Flag, Highland Reel, Churchill to name a few. 

Other familiar runners include popular winners... 

Lady Aurelia, Marsha, Washington Dc, Lady Eli, Queen's Trust, Ribchester, Lancaster Bomber, Ulysses, Decorated Knight, Seventh Heaven, Cliffs Of Moher, Arrogate.

Also look out for Ascot raider Wesley Wards runners on home turf.

Good luck if punting.

Edited by Kingman
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13 minutes ago, Kingman said:

@Rugeley Villa End of season classics this weekend across the pond. 

See AoB has sent a strong team to the US for this weekends Breeders Cup Festival. 

Rhododendron, Roly Poly, U S Navy Flag, Highland Reel, Churchill to name a few. 

Other familiar runners include popular winners... 

Lady Aurelia, Marsha, Washington Dc, Lady Eli, Queen's Trust, Ribchester, Lancaster Bomber, Ulysses, Decorated Knight, Seventh Heaven, Cliffs Of Moher, Arrogate.

Also look out for Ascot raider Wesley Wards runners on home turf.

Good luck if punting.

Had a look this morning and noticed a lot of big names have gone over there. 

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25 minutes ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Had a look this morning and noticed a lot of big names have gone over there. 

7.37 Lady Aurella 11/10... 9.00 Rhododendron 4/1... 22.19 Ribchester 7/2... 00.35 Arregate 5/2... 

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Told my wife there was a horse racing called "Golden Amber" and she's gone and put a tenner on it at 40/1 :rolleyes:. She goes into that sort of thing. Our youngest is named Amber you see. She has form tbf, and she's had three winners in the past at 33/1 33/1 and 25/1. 

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  • 1 month later...

Just reading about the Hughie Morrison doping scandal here.

His fate awaits the verdict tomorrow morning at 10am.

Reading between the lines it looks like the horse has been got at.

A sad shame if his whole career and livelyhood is thrown into the air.

Don't get me wrong, we have had trainers before in wrong doings.. Howard Johnson etc. but the consensus on this one is that HM has been targetted so to speak.

Quote

Morrison to learn fate on Friday as legal team maintain malicious intervention

Hughie Morrison arriving at the BHA on Tuesday for the start of the Our Little Sister inquiry
Hughie Morrison arriving at the BHA on Tuesday for the start of the Our Little Sister inquiry
Dan Abraham
1 of 1
By Graham DenchUPDATED 10:20AM, DEC 21 2017
    

Trainer Hughie Morrison will face an anxious wait until Friday morning before learning the result of a BHA inquiry which could impose a career-ending ban.

The independent disciplinary panel sitting in judgement retired at the end of day two to consider the evidence and will inform Morrison and his team of their verdict at 11am, and then the media an hour later.

Morrison theoretically faces disqualification of up to ten years, but his QC Graeme McPherson argued he should avoid all punishment, claiming his client had been a victim of malicious intervention and that "strict liability" and the ensuing penalties that might normally apply in such cases are not appropriate.

Morrison found himself before the BHA at the end of a long-running investigation that began when his filly Our Little Sister tested positive for the steroid nandrolone after finishing last at Wolverhampton on January 14.

He was made aware of the result on February 3 and has ever since vigorously denied any part in the administration of the drug, which both sides agreed can have been administered only by intramuscular injection within a window of opportunity of around a month before the Wolverhampton race.

McPherson criticised the investigation for its failure to preserve all evidence from the outset – a reference in part to a failure to investigate stable CCTV from her outing at Southwell on January 2 before it was recorded over; for the investigators' closed minds; and for their failure to consider what further investigations they might undertake and what other intelligence there might be out there.

Significant mitigation

He argued strenuously for no penalty at all but said that if the panel did impose one they should consider the significant mitigation.

McPherson said he would not argue against disqualification "if the panel concludes that on the balance of probability Mr Morrison pressed the plunger", but he argued the trainer had "taken all reasonable measures" regarding the security of the filly, both at his stables and at the racecourse, and submitted that "a fine of around £1,000 is the way forward" if any penalty is to be imposed, pointing to the signification mitigation.

He said: "In mitigation you have Mr Morrison's exemplary record, which is without blemish over 25 years, you have his extraordinary character references, and his co-operation throughout the investigation". That co-operation which McPherson said went far beyond what might normally be expected as Morrison "pushed the investigation himself and spent a vast amount of money trying to get to the bottom of who was behind it".

He added that the consequences of disqualification would be "catastrophic", not just for Morrison and his family but for his staff and community.

Day two had begun with McPherson's lengthy cross-examination of Tim Miller, the leader of the BHA's investigating officers, which sought to cast doubt on the thoroughness of his investigations and on security at the racecourse stables at Southwell on January 2, and established from Miller that Morrison had "opened up his life" to him in terms of access to telephone records and emails.

Morrison gave evidence to the panel in two parts, the first a somewhat uncomfortable session before lunch when he confirmed that in addition to offering a £10,000 reward for information he had employed a former detective chief inspector as a private investigator in "a bid to find the culprit".

He denied he had instructed him to send an email, that the BHA's counsel Philip Evans described as "threatening", to the trainer named on day one as having been heard to say she would "get at" Our Little Sister.

State of agitation

He explained his state of agitation on the morning of the BHA's investigation team's dawn visit on February 3, comparing it to "going through Bangkok airport and being arrested with Class A drugs in your bag".

Morrison was much more assured in the afternoon session, and when Evans suggested reasons why he, or a member of his staff, might have given the filly a steroid – a known performance enhancer – he argued he had no feasible motive whatsoever, adding "it would be professional suicide to run her three times knowing she had it in her system" and that he would "need to go off with the men in white coats", so strict is the BHA's anti-doping stance.

Evans claimed Morrison had adopted a "scattergun approach" to his denial and had sought to blame the BHA from day one, yet the BHA had "followed up almost every avenue of inquiry" and that its investigation had been "very thorough".

He argued the BHA did not have to prove guilt as the rule Morrison was charged under was "a strict liability offence". He added that "the panel does not need to know the how, when or why", rather it had to ask itself: "Am I satisfied that Morrison has proved this was a malicious intervention?"

Morrison’s punishment will hinge on how the panel interprets the evidence and the rules that were applied to the recent high-profile Philip Hobbs case, in which Hobbs escaped a penalty for a medication infringement.

 

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Morrison found not guilty in steroid scandal

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Morrison: 'The culprit who injected the filly is still out there'

Hughie Morrison has avoided a ban following the conclusion of the Our Little Sister doping case, with the disciplinary panel imposing a £1,000 fine after determining the trainer was not involved in administering an anabolic steroid to the filly.

Morrison was facing a potentially career-ending disqualification of anywhere between one and ten years.

The panel concluded on the balance of probabilities that Morrison was not involved in administering nandrolone laurate to Our Little Sister, stating it was instead done "by person or persons unknown, for unknown reasons".

The verdict added: "It may have been done to target Mr Morrison, but even that remains speculative."

Morrison said: "I am delighted that the disciplinary panel has concluded that I was not involved in any way with the administration of this steroid.

"I cannot overstate the stress that has been caused by this long-running case for me, my wife, all my staff and connections, and the relief now felt having been rightly and so comprehensively exonerated.

"I would like to thank the panel for its careful consideration of my case, my wife and family who have had to endure what has been a terrible ordeal, my owners who have been incredibly supportive and my senior staff – especially Jane, my secretary, and Barbara, my head girl – and vet Jamie O'Gorman for their unswerving support throughout the last 11 months.

"I would also like to thank my legal team Andrew Chalk and Charlotte Ebbutt of Royds Withy King and Graeme McPherson QC, without whom I fear all would have been lost many months ago.

"The culprit who injected the filly is still out there so everyone needs to be on their guard."

The result is a significant defeat for the BHA, which had argued the principle of strict liability meant trainers are responsible for the positive tests of horses in their care, regardless of proven involvement.

Jamie Stier, chief regulatory officer for the BHA, said: "Racing is based on fair play and respect for the rules. That's how we earn the trust and confidence of the participants and all those who watch or bet on our sport, without whom there would be no racing industry.

"British racing has a zero-tolerance policy towards the use of anabolic steroids, which are proven to help performance in sport. We must have a level playing field with integrity. We must protect the welfare of our animals.

"The rules are clear that it is the trainer’s responsibility to prevent horses taking part in our sport with prohibited substances in their system. It is important, therefore, that the trainer in this case has accepted he was in breach of the rules of racing, and that the disciplinary panel has confirmed that, as the responsible person, Mr Morrison is in breach of the rules.

"As was set out in our opening submissions, the BHA had no positive case to put to any individual witness because the BHA could not say who administered the anabolic steroid to the horse. However, it was the BHA’s case that Mr Morrison’s assertion that this was a malicious act by someone completely outside of his control is unlikely. It was not the BHA’s case that the administration of the substance ‘must have been done by Mr Morrison or somebody at his direction’.
 
“We respect the panel’s decision, the rules of racing have been upheld and the matter of penalty is a matter wholly for the disciplinary panel to determine.

“The panel also confirmed that the BHA ‘properly ran the case’. They found that it was not the duty of the BHA to protect Mr Morrison, that the attacks on the adequacy and good faith of the BHA’s investigation ‘wholly failed’ and, with one exception, criticism of the BHA’s conduct was misplaced.
 
“The one exception related to the fact that a hair sample was not taken. The BHA has always said that we would not use hair sampling as primary evidence until such point as there is international agreement and also full accreditation.

"Until that happens, hair samples are not accepted as regulatory samples, which limits our ability to use them in disciplinary cases.  Therefore, it would not have been appropriate for the BHA to rely on hair sampling as part of its evidence in this case. Had we done so, it would have been open to challenge."

Interesting to see other 'names' being mentioned..

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  • 4 months later...

Lightning Spear 22/1 has a great running fresh record of 11132. Got to be worth an E/W punt. 

Cardsharp 10/1 also worth a punt with a very good 6f record. 

Only two minor wins this week which has broke even for me. Good luck today. 

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6 hours ago, Rugeley Villa said:

Lightning Spear 22/1 has a great running fresh record of 11132. Got to be worth an E/W punt.

Bollocks. Top pick. I'd like to see that photo to see just how close it was because he'd won it a yard after the line.

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1 hour ago, snowychap said:

Bollocks. Top pick. I'd like to see that photo to see just how close it was because he'd won it a yard after the line.

Didn't manage to catch the race, but heard it was close. 

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  • 3 weeks later...

Had a nice little E/W double at the weekend. Gabriel at 10s, and Dee Ex Bee at 33s. Didn't think they would win, but was pretty sure they would place. Other than that had nothing else at Epsom over the two days, but was up. 

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