Ronan McNally appeals against 12-year ban but other guilty parties accept IHRB findings

Ronan McNally has formally appealed against the full findings of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's referral panel that last week landed him with a 12-year disqualification and fine of €50,000 for a raft of integrity breaches.

McNally had signalled his intent to challenge the panel's conclusions and sanctions and took that step on Monday, the IHRB has confirmed. He was found guilty by the panel of ten of the 11 charges brought against him by the IHRB after an investigation established that he had prevented Dreal Deal and The Jam Man from running on their merits before executing an array of high-profile gambles, concluding that he had behaved in such a way as to have done "serious damage to the interests of horseracing in Ireland".

He was convicted of conspiring with fellow trainer David Dunne to conceal his ownership of horses in Dunne's care, and of fraudulent practice in relation to the passing on of inside information to the point-to-point handler Ciaran Fennessy, whose father Liam and brother Aaron then used the information to gamble accordingly. Dunne has accepted the findings but has appealed against the severity of his sanctions. His licence was suspended for two years, with the final 18 months of that suspended. He was fined €5,000 and ordered to repay prize-money totalling €27,000 from the races that the horses in question were disqualified from as a result of the investigation. McNally was also ordered to repay €13,400 in prize-money on a the same basis.

In publishing his unprecedented ban, which will preclude McNally from entering a racecourse or licensed premises, the panel stated: "His offences strike at the integrity and the objective of having a level playing field for all who send horses out to race. They also involved a deception of the public, especially the betting public."

Fennessy was disqualified for three years, with the final two years suspended. He was also fined €5,000.

Amateur jockey Eoin O'Brien was banned for 21 days after being retrospectively found guilty of preventing Dreal Deal from running on his merits at Navan in July 2020. Neither Fennessy nor O'Brien lodged appeals and the window to do so is now closed.

Read more:

Ronan McNally case a brave new frontier for integrity? We all know it won't be 

Ronan McNally hit with massive 12-year disqualification from Irish racing

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