Former appeals panel chair Sir William Gage, who presided over Jim Best case, dies aged 85

A service of thanksgiving will be held for Sir William Gage, a former high court judge and later the chair of racing's appeals board, who died last week at the age of 85.

Gage presided over the November 2016 rehearing into the Jim Best non-trier case after the trainer's original conviction for non-trying was found to be inadmissible following the revelation that Matthew Lohn – who had chaired the original inquiry – had previously undertaken paid work for the BHA and was thus deemed to have had a conflict of interest.  

Gage’s panel found Best guilty of ordering jockey Paul John not to win two races and banned him for six months.

The fallout led to a full scale overhaul of the way disciplinary cases were handled, with the establishment of the independent judicial panel comprising a disciplinary panel, the licensing committee and an appeals board. Gage stepped down from his role at the time the reforms were implemented. 

Gage's professional background was anchored in the law and he was appointed as a judge to the Queen's Bench Division of the High Court in 1993. 

Among the most notorious cases over which he presided was the 2001 trial of Barry George for the murder of the television presenter Jill Dando, at the conclusion of which the jury found the defendant guilty. The conviction was quashed on appeal in 2007. 

After retiring from the bench Gage conducted the public inquiry into British army brutality against Iraqi prisoners in Basra in 2003. 

A family cremation will be followed by a public service of thanksgiving at 2.30pm on Monday, October 2 at St Peter and St Paul’s parish church, King’s Sutton, Banbury, OX17 3RJK.