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Glad to hear the horse died in his sleep…..
Oh, and the € 2,000 for damaging the “good reputation” of the sport is also worth noting.
Just € 2,000 – not more……
https://www.theirishfield.ie/racing/racing-news/shark-hanlon-loses-licence-for-10-months-834938
The horse died in its sleep. The authorities appear to have accepted that as true. An inspection also revealed no welfare issues in his stable.
Hanlon was taking the dead horse to a licensed place which disposes of animal carcasses. That strikes me as an entirely reasonable course of action.
His offence seems to be he did not attach the tarpaulin securely enough and it has got loose, exposing the carcass to public view.
And he has got 10 months for that? I think that is completely disproportionate, even taking into account modern sensibilities.
I hope he gets the last 5 months suspended.
How Irish racing works:
Horse fails test for illegal substance: 6 months (Tony Martin)
Tie down a tarpaulin too loosely: 10 months (Shark Hanlon)
A fine would have been adequate the length of that ban is ridiculous.
The more I know the less I understand.
Agree RTB. He has been negligent and caused an embarrassing situation – but there is no suggestion of mistreatment or any kind of integrity issue.
No doubt a few people were outraged by the images on social media but the Irish authorities have made the situation worse by handing out such a disproportionate penalty. It only serves to draw more attention to the situation.
To think Gordon Elliott got 12 months with 6 months suspended for the fiasco he started.
The more I know the less I understand.
The horse died while sleeping is completely acceptable, but why is there someone following his lorry?
I’m sure there is no welfare issue, but why the witch hunt? As CAS pointed out some trainers get away with real offences and Shark stumbled over a dead horse.
And how do you measure the ‘good reputation’ of the sport while translating into a fine? Who came up with the 2k euros in relation to the ten months? Simply makes no sense.
Him staying out of his stable for at least five months is far worse than that ridiculous fine.He shouldn’t have been banned at all as a fine would’ve sufficed.
10 months is an absolute disgrace.
Why didn’t he just get the horse collected from his yard. He must surely know there is always someone out there waiting with their mobilei phone to share photos around Social Media.
His yard was checked and no signs of horses bring ill treated were found it was just a bad decision on his part and he certainly didn’t deserve the 10 month ban.
Jac
Things turn out best for those who make the best of how things turn out...The length of ban does seem very harsh on face value. The disciplinary committee mentioned “obfuscation and inconsistency in the accounts given to investigating officials in the immediate aftermath”. This may have influenced the severity of the punishment.
Hanlon’s name is developing an unfortunate tendency to appear in stories connected to reputational concerns for racing. Let’s hope this is the last of them.
Maybe a €10k fine with the 10 months being a fully suspended sentence for a period of 2 years, where if he has any further violations within that period then the 10 month ban automatically kicks in.
It was negligent actions in not ensuring that the covering was sufficiently secure enough to do its job but in the scheme of how other more serious offenses are handled it does seem rather OTT…..could be a ‘perception’ response setencing rather than one being issued based on common sense (i.e. it is not going to look good optically for a member of Joe Public to have that happen bang in front of them as they might automatically jump to the wrong conclusions on how the horse came to be in that state).
Something dont add up here , this seems a really extreme punishment for loose tarpaulin . However story out yesterday about ex horse of his turnung up in rough condition , that he sold as part of job lot to a person he sells to regularly , yet he takes video of them leaving yard , sounds like he dont fully trust buyer but i suppose self preservation to video them . He also had horse or horses turn up at that disgusting knackery few months ago .
I dont know , has he been squared up here .HCMW, you could be spot on. Loose tarpaulin isn’t worth that kind of a ban. It could be more to that story than the Irish Authorities have told us so far.
And once again who drives right behind the van with the deceased horse waiting for a snapshot?I wonder what the name of the horse was…. quite sure it’s on one of Ekbalco’s HRI lists.
“The disciplinary committee mentioned ‘obfuscation and inconsistency in the accounts given to investigating officials in the immediate aftermath’. This may have influenced the severity of the punishment.”
I think that is probably true. Perhaps a suspended ban of a short duration might have been appropriate. But a de facto 5 month ban, which will cover a substantial part of the jumps season, is a huge overreaction to what was a mistake. The punishment does not fit the “crime”.
Maybe I am speaking out of turn but I get the impression the Irish racing establishment does not like Hanlon much. Whether they like it or not, this punishment has the look of “at last we’ve got him for something”.
It makes Irish racing look even more ridiculous than it already does. When a trainer like Tony Martin gets away with things for years and then only gets a token punishment (which he then openly flouted at Newcastle). No doubt we will all be expected to applaud him again the next time one of his handicap plot jobs hacks up.
The number of horses in Ireland which are given “quiet rides” in novice hurdles and the stewards do nothing. But fail to tie down a tarpaulin properly and they throw the book at you.
ERL, having seen the footage on Twitter/X, it looks like the lorry was driving through a relatively populated area. I suspect the vehicle behind simply spotted the unsavoury sight and someone got their phone out as that is what people do nowadays. I wouldn’t necessarily think Hanlon was being followed deliberately.
I couldn’t see any loose tarpaulin in the video. It must have come clean off by then, or a cynic might suggest it was never there to begin with.
I share the views expressed above that possibly the heavy sentencing also reflected wider concerns about Hanlon. Of course, this is not how things should work, and it has made the judgement look very questionable.
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