Trainer Liam Bailey fined £4,500 for 'shocking' incident over female employee

Trainer Liam Bailey has been fined £4,500 for violent and improper conduct towards a female member of staff at his Middleham stable. Footage of the incident, recorded by the victim on her phone, shows Bailey shouting, cursing and eventually lunging at her in what a disciplinary panel described as "a truly shocking incident" in October 2019.

Representing himself at a hearing on Thursday, Bailey sought to explain that the incident was the culmination of difficulties between himself and the member of staff, whom he said was repeatedly late to work, including on this occasion. But he added: "I still shouldn't have acted how I did, I accept that."

Bailey and the BHA agreed on the facts of the case in advance of the hearing, sparing the need for a witness appearance by the member of staff, who left Bailey's employment the following week and now works at another yard. On the day in question, she was late at the yard for evening stables, having had what she described as "car trouble".

By the start of the available footage, the staffer was working inside a stable with a horse and Bailey was standing just outside. "You were late, you were f****** late," he shouted at her. "Get it into your head. You were late! It don't have to be anybody else's fault if you were late!"

The staffer replied: "If you ever try and hit me . . ." at which point Bailey wrenched aside a wheelbarrow and advanced into the box, shouting: "I don't give a f***! I don't give a f***!" The footage ended as he reached for her mobile phone.

Delivering the verdict, David Fish QC told Bailey: "This was a truly shocking incident involving appalling language, violent and threatening behaviour on your part, culminating in you grabbing the young lady by her arm in an effort to obtain a mobile phone, which you must have known was filming your behaviour.

"The footage which we have seen, each member of the panel has found to be very disturbing indeed and it paints you on this occasion in a very bad and poor light indeed. This was done in the confines of a stable in which a racehorse was present and that could have had terrible consequences, had that racehorse reacted in the wrong way."

Fish told Bailey he "may well be fortunate" that the BHA had opted to charge him under rule J20, rather than J19, which is concerned with conduct prejudicial to racing's reputation and allows for the suspension of a person's licence. The range of penalties for a trainer who breaches J20 is a fine of up to £5,000.

Visitors to Liam Bailey's yard on the 2019 Middleham open day

Charlotte Davison, presenting the BHA's case, said the member of staff "somehow ended up on the floor" after the "wrestling match" for the phone. She was left with bruises to an arm, photographs of which were shared with the panel.

She ran away from the scene but was followed by Bailey, whom she recalls trying to make light of the incident before eventually leaving her. She reported the incident to the police, who interviewed Bailey the next day and dealt with the matter by a community resolution order, as part of which the trainer wrote the employee a letter of apology.

Bailey insisted there would be no repeat of such behaviour and told the panel: "It had been a build-up of things. I should have been more professional and just nipped it in the bud.

"When I look at the staff I have now, they're exemplary, they're unbelievable, they're fantastic. And then when I look back, it was unbelievable, really.

"But then, my first season training, we were struggling, she knew we were short of staff, there was no way we could afford to lose her. It was an attitude that, 'I'll do what I want and there's nothing really you can do about it'.

"I still shouldn't have done what I did, I shouldn't have gone to grab the phone, I shouldn't have shouted at her. Obviously, the footage misses the bit where she's shouting at me."

Bailey is a salaried trainer for Foulrice Park Racing, whose Ailsa Stirling said: "By Liam’s own admission he didn’t handle the original situation well and this was down to his inexperience as a manager of staff. The incident which happened over 18 months ago was in his first few months as a trainer.

"It was addressed formally, at that time, both internally by Foulrice Park Racing and by the BHA, and Liam accepted the outcome. We have no further comments to make."

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