Six-month suspended ban 'considerably more severe' than agreed plea deal - Tim Vaughan

Tim Vaughan has spoken out after an independent judicial panel issued him with what he described as "a considerably more severe penalty" than the one agreed with BHA investigators after a positive test for the therapeutic anti-inflammatory TCA. 

The three-person panel met Vaughan and his legal representation in a closed session on Thursday to consider the facts of the case and merits of the plea agreement. 

As well as disqualifying Bells Of Peterboro from a win at Chepstow in January, the panel decided on a six-month withdrawal of Vaughan's licence, suspended for 18 months, and a £1,000 fine, with written reasons due to be published at a later date. 

In a statement, Vaughan outlined the sequence of events that led to Bells Of Peterboro failing to be clear of TCA contained in the therapeutic treatment Kenalog 26 days after it was administered by his vet, leading to a breach of (K) 2.2, the rule which concerns category B prohibited substances which are not allowed to be in a horse's system when they race.

The statement also revealed the plea agreement struck with the BHA was for a three-month withdrawal of his licence, suspended for six months, as well as the fine. 

Vaughan said: "The BHA was of the view that, in light of our engagement with the process that followed the post-race positive, the high level of insight we showed into where things had ‘gone wrong’, our immediate admission of the breach of the rules, the contrition shown in response to the charges and our previous good record, our ‘culpability’ (as it is described in the rules) fell into the medium category (‘an acceptable explanation for a significant therapeutic administration error’).

"As a result, and in line with the entry point for a breach of the rules of this type, the BHA considered that a three-month withdrawal of the licence suspended for six months, together with a financial penalty of £1,000, was the appropriate penalty for the disciplinary panel to impose. We did not contest that proposed penalty, and a concluded plea agreement was presented to the disciplinary panel by the BHA on those terms. 

"For reasons that have not yet been explained the disciplinary panel did not accept what the BHA had proposed and we had agreed. Instead, it imposed a considerably more severe penalty."

The BHA guidelines on penalties for a breach of 'medium culpability' for a positive result involving a substance, which is prohibited only on a raceday, has an entry level of three months licence withdrawal with the range reaching a maximum of three years, and a maximum suspension of 24 months. 

Vaughan's statement added that he would make no further comment until the independent judicial panel made public its written reasons concerning the case. 

The BHA does not have a published detection time for TCA. There is a mandatory 14-day stand-down period after the administration of intra-articular corticosteroids, including TCA.

A BHA notice, dated February 2017, emphasised the stand-down period was a minimum period between injection and racing, but that should not be confused with a detection time or a withdrawal period.

Vaughan was fined £1,000 at the end of a hearing in April 2023 concerning cases of TCA being found in the systems of Silver In Disguise and Clemencia. The panel concluded his culpability was low and noted his "good record and complete co-operation".

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Tim Vaughan given six-month suspended ban and £1,000 fine following positive test 

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