Only 2,000 a day will be permitted to attend Listowel© Photo Healy Racing
Animal cruelty is a highly emotive issue. To many people it ranks close to paedophilia as one of the most heinous of crimes. For that reason I have tried to take a dispassionate view of Stephen Mahon’s Appeal Hearing verdict.
The following scenario is an analogy for what effectively happened in the case of Mahon -
You’ve been charged with drink-driving, speeding in a built up area, bald tyres on the car and not wearing a seatbelt. Drink-driving carries an automatic suspension of your licence while the other three offences, serious as they are, individually result in penalty points on your licence.
At the subsequent court case you are found guilty on all charges and banned from driving for 4 years.
You know you hadn’t been drinking when stopped by the Gardai and can prove it so you lodge an Appeal.
You win the Appeal regarding the most serious drink-driving offence but your ban is only reduced by 6 months and you are still off the road for 3 years and 6 months.
Far and away the most serious charge levelled against Mahon at the original Referral Committee Hearing was that he had shown very serious neglect to a horse called Geoffrey’s Girl which had sustained a catastrophic fetlock injury and was subsequently euthanised.
The IHRB case as to neglect of Geoffrey’s Girl was based on the fetlock injury being older than the recent injury suggested by Mahon.
The IHRB had contended at the Referral Hearing that Geoffrey’s Girl had suffered this injury several days prior to their unannounced visit and that Mahon had failed to seek treatment in a timely manner for the horse.
The Appeal panel disagreed with this version of the events and struck out all charges in relation to Geoffrey’s Girl.
It turns out Geoffrey’s Girl almost certainly received the injury on the gallops only an hour or so before the IHRB inspectors arrived at Mahon’s premises at 11am on April 13.
The horse had been entered the previous morning, April 12, for a race taking place on the Friday which would indicate that she was healthy at that stage.
Mahon maintains the injury was sustained when the horse schooled on the morning of April 13.
On April 13 Mahon’s regular Vet was out of the country but he had a locum booked to come to his yard in the afternoon to do some routine procedures on a number of horses. At 10:56am (before the unannounced visitors from the IHRB arrived) Mahon made a call to that Vet with regards to Geoffrey’s Girl. The Vet’s phone was out of coverage or switched off but the call was logged.
From 11am onwards Geoffrey’s Girl had two qualified IHRB Veterinary Surgeons on site but neither attended to the horse and nor did they direct that immediate veterinary attention was required but suggested that the animal be treated by the Vet who was attending that afternoon to treat other animals.
The post-mortem report of 22 April provided by Dr Ursula Fogarty of the Irish Equine Centre, diagnosing that the lesions were consistent with a relatively recent severe traumatic injury to the left fore fetlock also backs up Mahon’s version of events.
It could be argued that Mahon’s initial 4 year ban - the longest ever given - was too lenient for the array of offences he was convicted of but there can be little doubt that the most damning allegation against Mahon was in relation to Geoffrey’s Girl.
There were other charges against Mahon - many of which relate to horses that were not actually on his premises but were located in nearby paddocks on his landlord’s farm - and Mahon has put his hands up to at least some of them but do they really warrant a 3 years and 6 months ban? Perhaps, collectively they do, but Mahon must still feel a little hard done by with the Appeal verdict.
The major flaw in Mahon’s ban is that while his licence is suspended he can still work with horses. If a person is convicted of cruelty to animals the resulting sanction must include a period where they are not allowed near animals.
Last week the government outlined their latest roadmap in the fight against Covid and from today organised outdoor sporting events can increase their capacity up to a maximum of 75% if all attendees have been double vaccinated or have recovered from Covid in the last 6 months.
This currently accounts for 88% of the adult population of Ireland and any normal business would jump at the opportunity to open back up to the largest possible number of customers and start to recoup the losses of the previous 18 months, but not horse racing.
With just two major festivals remaining in the season it has been announced that these will continue to have severely curtailed crowd numbers. Irish Champions Weekend taking place at Leopardstown and the Curragh next weekend will be restricted to 4,000 spectators a day while the 7-day Listowel Harvest Festival later this month will have only 2,000 in attendance each day.
This is extremely disappointing news and for once we cannot blame either NPHET or the government for these restrictions. This decision is solely down to HRI and the racecourses.
Maybe the racing authorities are suffering from a bout of agoraphobia but it’s certainly a shock that an industry that had made submissions to government for 5,000 spectators at each of the above mentioned events should then restrict themselves to smaller numbers when the new government advice clearly allows for many more people.
The racing industry claims it’s always looking for new ways to engage with a wider audience and broaden the appeal of the sport. Re-opening the doors would be a good place to start.
