Banned Flemensface reinstated as Cork bumper winner on appeal

Flemensface, the horse at the centre of a controversy when having to be returned to Tattersalls by Lucinda Russell after it emerged he had tested positive for a prohibited substance when winning his point-to-point in March, has been reinstated the winner of the Cork bumper he claimed in the interim following an appeal by his handler Alan Ahern. 

The 14-month suspension against the horse, who was bought by Russell for £100,000 at Tattersalls Cheltenham Sale in April, remains in place, as does the €1,250 in fines against Ahern. 

Flemensface had tested positive for clenbuterol after landing a Knockanohill point-to-point in March, but he returned negative samples following his victory at Cork a month later, when he ran in the name of trainer Michael Griffin. Tattersalls was not made aware of the finding when the horse was put through the ring ten days later. 

At a hearing in October, an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board referrals committee disqualified Flemensface from his point-to-point win and bumper success, backdating his ban to the day of the Cork race, but Ahern's recent appeal has succeeded in having that particular aspect overturned.

An IHRB panel has also overturned another of its panels' previous decisions, with Coolree promoted back to first past the post for his half-length Killarney maiden win in July. Two days after the race, James Browne, owner of the Ronan Whelan-ridden runner-up Most Wanted, wrote to the IHRB of his intention to appeal against the decision of the stewards on the day to make the 'winner all right' announcement on the basis that his horse had been impeded by Coolree in the closing stages, and was struck on the nose by the whip of Coolree's rider, Leigh Roche. 

An appeals body duly convened in August but deferred the matter back to a referrals' panel, who later that month reviewed the race as live raceday stewards. That panel reversed the placings of the first two, placing the Andrew Kinirons-trained Most Wanted, who was an odds-on favourite, first and demoting the Jennifer Lynch-trained Coolree to second. However, Lynch and Roche then appealed against that decision, and they were successful in their efforts to get Coolree reinstated, meaning the original result stands after all. 

All parties have been notified of the findings in both cases and details are expected to be published shortly by the IHRB.

Read more:

Irish racing insisted Jim Bolger was wrong on doping - but scandals like Flemensface make it hard to defend 

Banned point winner Flemensface leaves Lucinda Russell and returns to Ireland after Tattersalls voids sale

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