BHA unwitting stooges in apprentice saga as professionals resort to blame game
The year is closing as it opened, with prominent trainers openly berating the BHA.
Sparks flew back in January over the £140 fine meted out to Henry Oliver for waving his arms at a horse reluctant to line up for a race at Uttoxeter. Now we have trainers shutting the door on would-be apprentices after the BHA recalibrated financial arrangements between the two parties.
But that is where the similarities between the two cases end. In the first instance, the BHA invited opprobrium when it attempted to justify the fine with a crassly worded statement in which it maintained all horses must race entirely “of their own free will”.
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