Trainer Ronan McNally has been found guilty of breaking a number of racing rules, including 'concealing the true ability of horses'.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board also found the Armagh trainer guilty of causing "serious damage to the interests of horse racing in Ireland".
McNally has landed a number of significant gambles in recent years, including with Dreal Deal and The Jam Man.
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However, the pair were mentioned specifically in charges related to using the racecourse as a training ground, as well as not running on their merits, and the IHRB also ruled McNally had passed on “information about the condition and wellbeing of Dreal Deal to allow others to profit from betting on the horse with a betting organisation”.
He was also deemed to have achieved "a pattern of improvement in form of horses at a level previously unfamiliar to experienced and long-serving handicapping officials".
The IHRB released details of their lengthy investigation on Tuesday, with the panel saying that it has been proved that McNally conspired with the point-to-point trainer Ciaran Fennessy “to engage in a corrupt and fraudulent practise in relation to the passing of inside information for betting purposes and/or concealing the true ability of horses in order to obtain handicap marks not reflective of their ability.”
McNally was also found to have concealed his ownership of horses in other training yards, with the committee saying he failed to register the correct ownership details with Horse Racing Ireland, and organised "the manipulation of official handicap ratings" for All Class and Full Noise.
McNally was determined to be at least partially in breach of 10 of 11 alleged rule infringements by an IHRB referrals committee, which considered the case over four days in October.
The handler said he was “deeply disappointed and dissatisfied” with the findings against him.
McNally will face a sanctions hearing in due course, but expressed his dismay at the findings and will “almost certainly” appeal.
He told the PA news agency: “On legal advice I don’t want to make too much comment at this stage as there is still another hearing in January to attend. However, I am deeply disappointed and dissatisfied with the findings to date.
“No penalties are finalised yet and I still have the right to appeal the original charges.
“I will almost certainly be appealing the charges. I am very unhappy with the findings.”
Fennessy and jockeys Darragh O’Keeffe, Eoin O’Brien and Mark Enright were also implicated in the case.
Enright and O’Keeffe were found to have failed to make reports on slow starts for Dreal Deal when they rode him in June and July 2020 respectively, but were cleared of all other riding-related charges while O’Brien was found in breach of all four charges, including that he schooled the horse in public.
Fennessy was found in breach of the three charges he was facing with the committee deciding he had conspired with McNally and/or others – including Fennessy’s father Liam and brother Aaron – to “engage in a corrupt and fraudulent practice in relation to the passing of inside information for betting purposes and/or concealing the true ability of horses so as to obtain handicap marks not reflective or their ability”.
Another trainer, David Dunne, was found to have supplied “misleading information and/or false information to an official at a stewards’ inquiry” at Navan in March 2021 as well as failing to lodge the correct ownership details related to handicap winners All Class, Full Noise and Petrol Head, all of whom ran for him between October 2020 and August 2021.
The referrals “adjourned to consider the case in its entirety”, with a sanctions hearing date to be confirmed.
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