Long-awaited report into IHRB scandal makes one thing absolutely clear - the whole situation stinks

On Tuesday, nearly a year and a half after the scandal first emerged and months after the initial report draft was provided to Irish racing's regulatory body, the €80,000 probe into financial impropriety at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board was formally concluded.

The IHRB finally published the report, by auditing firm Mazars, which stopped short of explicitly linking the borrowing of €350,000 of charitable money from the Jockeys Emergency Fund (Jef) to the enormous golden handshake received by its former chief executive Denis Egan. 

However, it confirmed the reprehensible act was rooted in a cashflow crisis and certain facts are clear.