Nicky Hartery, Chairperson HRI, presenting Willie Mullins with the National Hunt Award 2024© Photo Healy Racing
It is 18 months since Ronan McNally lost his Appeal against the unprecedented sanctions handed down to him by a Referral Committee.
At the original Referral Hearing McNally was found guilty of a number of serious Rule breaches and was declared a disqualified person for 12 years. McNally also forfeited all prize money won by a number of horses he owned and ordered to pay €50,000 towards Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) legal costs.
While he did lose his Appeal, and had to again contribute to the legal costs incurred by the IHRB, he did have the last 4 years of his 12 years disqualification suspended for the duration of the 12 years, on the condition that he does not reoffend.
The banned trainer is now embarking on the biggest gamble of his career by taking a civil case against the IHRB to the High Court. It is extremely rare for a horse racing matter such as this to go to the civil courts because of the prohibited costs involved, but McNally presumably thinks he has a realistic chance of winning.
At the Appeal Hearing McNally and his legal team had looked to explore new issues and points of law that were not raised at the original Referral, but these were not permitted by the Appeal Panel.
Perhaps Ronan McNally and his representatives are of the opinion that having these points argued in the High Court will be sufficient to vindicate him and ultimately reinstate his licence to train, but it’s going to be a costly exercise finding out.
Changing the subject, it looks to have been a costly venture so far for the new connections of Caldwell Potter. Messrs Ferguson, Mason, Hales and Done aren’t short of a few quid, but the €740,000 they paid for the well-related grey looks way over the top judged on last week’s flop at Cheltenham.
Having waited ten months to see their new purchase appear on a racecourse, they would have to be disappointed with the manner in which he was bruised aside at Cheltenham last Friday on his second start of the campaign.
That said, I wonder if these unrealistic sums we see paid for National Hunt horses are actually about racecourse performance at all. At this level the horse can never win back its purchase price in prize money and can never be resold for a profit, so the money spent is either about the potential glory of owning a major race winner or perhaps a more basic desire to publicly flaunt their wealth and status.
If it was the latter rationale that drove the purchase of Caldwell Potter the owners probably got full value for their money well before he got beaten last week and anything he does on the racecourse is simply a bonus.
Willie Mullins’ remarkable achievements during the 2023/2024 season continue to reap unexpected benefits. An honorary doctorate from the South East Technological University would have been a nice surprise for the Champion Trainer, as would the ‘Outstanding Contribution to Ireland Award’ at the recent Business and Finance awards, but I’d imagine even the great man was more than a little shocked to win ‘Manager Of The Year’ at the RTÉ Sports Awards.
It was nice to see the RTÉ show recognise horse racing and in particular the achievements of Willie Mullins, but it is a bit of a stretch to call him ‘Manager Of The Year,’ an accolade normally associated with team sports.
This is the second time RTÉ have presented this award to a racehorse trainer, they did the same in 2017 when they gave it to Aidan O’Brien for training 26 Group One winners in a calendar year.
Who knows, if Ronan McNally manages to get his trainers’ licence back in 2025 he could be in line for an award or two himself next year, as it would undoubtedly be an ‘outstanding achievement.’
