Irish trainer hit with €4,000 fine after failing to pay staff prize-money bonus

Trainer Declan Queally has been fined €4,000 by an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board referrals committee after issues surrounding his distribution of a stable staff bonus scheme linked to prize-money.

The panel also imposed a six-month removal of the Waterford-based trainer's licence but suspended that withdrawal for a period of 12 months subject to the IHRB's satisfaction that he was in full compliance with the rule related to employee bonuses.

Ireland's Stable Employee Bonus Scheme is financed by a three per cent deduction from all prize-money, with those funds paid to trainers quarterly before being distributed to all registered employees.

Amounts paid to each member of staff are agreed by all employees, based on a written agreement, with the details lodged through the IHRB.

An IHRB inspection team visited Queally's yard unannounced in May 2021 after an anonymous letter to the regulator complaining at his distribution of the employee scheme money.

At last week's referral, Queally accepted that misleading information had been provided to the IHRB relating to the stable staff initiative, and that the "funds had not been distributed in accordance with the agreement or as per the quarterly returns made to the IHRB as required".

Queally said the errors made were "unintentional and due to a lack of understanding of the workings of the scheme", adding he had no full-time staff at the time in question and believed it was only permanent employees who qualified for the payment.

Western Victory: seven-time winner for trainer Declan QueallyCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

The trainer, who saddled Western Victory to land Listed hurdle events in 2019 and 2021, confirmed that although the returns made by him declared his stable staff received the scheme money, those funds were not given.

Queally was found to have acted in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct or good reputation of horseracing and "supplied misleading information to a racing official". He was fined €3,000 for this breach.

A further €1,000 fine was imposed due to breaches around his non-payment of the bonus money and failing to display a completed copy of the trainer-employee agreement in a staff working area.

BHA adds two more all-weather fixtures next week

The BHA have announced two additional all-weather fixtures will be held next week.

Lingfield will host a meeting on Monday December 12 while Southwell's Flat card will take place the following day on Tuesday December 13.

Entries for the two fixtures will close on Friday at noon ahead of declarations on Saturday and Sunday, which both close at 10am.

Funeral of former trainer Peter Hedger to be held this month

Funeral details for former trainer Peter Hedger, who died on Sunday at the age of 82, have been announced with the service taking place this month.

It will be held at 1pm on Thursday, December 22 at The Oaks Crematorium in Havant, Hampshire.

Hedger had a distinguished career in racing spanning eight decades and was still riding out four years ago.

Having been encouraged to become a trainer by John Dunlop, he won the National Spirit Hurdle at Fontwell, his local track, in 1991 when Al Asoof beat Champion Hurdle winner Beech Road and also had plenty of success on the Flat, including with Continuum, who won the John Smith's Silver Cup at York in 2014.

Riding A Dream Academy's inaugural Regional Week a great success

Ten students from Harris Academy Peckham in South London were given the opportunity of riding for the first time, looking after horses at the British Racing School, as well as undertaking media training from ITV broadcaster Oli Bell.

The year-ten students had no experience of racing and were taking part in the Riding A Dream Academy's regional week at Epsom tacecourse last week.

The Racing Foundation-backed week is designed to increase access to the horse racing industry for 14-18 year olds and the benefits of the scheme were recognised by Harris Academy Peckham's assistant principal Charlotte Evans.

She said: "The beauty, majesty and therapeutic impact of horses is something so often not experienced when living in an inner city, and we are so very pleased that we have been able to expand our students' experiences through the people they met this week, the places they were able to visit, and experience that will stay with them for a lifetime.

"We have all been made to feel very welcome and I hope this is a programme that we will continue to be able to offer our students in the future."

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