Little Rory Mac punt 'tars us all with same brush' says owner John Dance

Leading owner John Dance claims the Little Rory Mac controversy has left a stain on racing's reputation and left him questioning his participation in the sport.

After falling foul of the non-trier rules on his previous start at Warwick, a race when "everything went wrong" according to trainer Henry Oliver, Little Rory Mac landed a hefty punt for owner Adam McCormack at Market Rasen on Thursday.

However a series of social media posts before and after the race by McCormack, who has subsequently admitted he went too far with his Twitter provocations, vexed Dance – and even Oliver agreed.

"I didn't go to Market Rasen and didn't really speak to Adam other than to say well done with your horse winning today," the trainer said. "I did see what he put on Twitter and I wasn't impressed by it, but at the end of the day it's each to their own."

Dance, the owner of retired multiple Group 1 winner Laurens and sponsor of the Vertem Futurity Trophy at Doncaster, went further.

He said: "Instances like this do damage to the public perception of the sport and we all get tarred with the same brush," he said. "I don't want to be part of it [racing] in many ways."

Under-fire owner defends actions after landing big punt at Market Rasen

"Coups have been part and parcel of racing for years but this one has left a particularly bitter taste because of some pretty obscene bragging on social media," said Dance.

McCormack caused a frenzy on Twitter by saying Little Rory Mac was worth a "small each-way bet if he drifts" and the odds of 13-8 were "too short".

After the five-year-old bolted up as the 15-8 favourite under a much more prominent ride than at Warwick, McCormack gloated about his winning bets, one of which with Star Sports netted him a £40,000 profit.

Adam McCormack (right) tweeted a picture with jockey Nathan Brennan after Little Rory Mac's win at Market Rasen

"The more I get involved in racing, the more I get frustrated by it, not just for ourselves but for other owners," continued Dance.

"I'm not necessarily referring to Adam here, but far too frequently you come across horses making a magical return to form. It makes it very hard when you're running a team of horses."

Little Rory Mac raced off a 2lb lower mark at Market Rasen despite the stewards at Warwick suspending jockey Liam Heard for ten days for "failing to ride his mount in such a way that he could be seen to ask for real or substantial effort to obtain the best possible placing".

Dance added: "It's absolutely unbelievable. If the stewards have come to the conclusion that the horse wasn't trying, how can you say it deserves to run off a couple of pounds lower? The handicappers have got amazing skill sets, but because it's an art not a science it's massively open to manipulation.

"The easiest way around it would be to stop owners from backing their own horses, certainly not in handicaps where the system can be manipulated."

Henry Oliver: 'My job is to try and put a horse in the worst race it can win'Credit: John Grossick (racingpost.com/photos)

Oliver, who trains six horses for McCormack, argued he had just found a winnable race for a horse getting off the mark at the seventh attempt.

"My job is to try to put a horse in the worst race it can win," the trainer said. "Market Rasen was an egg and spoon race, a 0-110 handicap hurdle, and we were taking off 10lb [through Nathan Brennan].

"He's a very highly strung horse, which is why he's had the hood on the last twice. Liam [Heard] has done a good job settling him and I felt a bit sorry for him at Warwick as it was one of those races when everything went wrong.

"He missed two badly down the back. The horse did finish well and Liam could have drawn him out to the line but the race was gone as far as I was concerned.

"The stewards found he didn't achieve the best possible placing, which is probably fair enough, but at the same time the handicapper has dropped him 2lb for a reason – because he wasn't good enough on the day."

Read The Lowdown from 8.30am daily onracingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app with all the day's latest going, weather, market moves and non-runner news