Trainer Philip Rothwell has been fined E3,000 by the Turf Club Stewards following an enquiry at Limerick today.
The enquiry surrounded the improvement in form of Rockers Field (form figures '000P'), who landed a gamble to win the Goggin Buckley Engineering Handicap Hurdle.
The enquiry reads:
Evidence was heard from Rothwell who stated that this gelding is difficult to train as he is now known to be a bleeder having shown this tendency recently and has also bleed following today's run. He added that he treats this horse for this problem.
He further added that his charge's second last race was here at Limerick when ridden by Ken Whelan who suggested that his charge was not showing any interest in-running and three days later he ran at Punchestown when ridden by Shane Jackson and was pulled up about halfway. He stated that he did not attend that meeting but knew that his charge was noted by the racecourse vet to be lame behind and he further stated that on arrival home at his stables he examined his charge and found him to have lost a shoe and to be tender on that foot for which he was rested and only walked for some days.
He stated that he works well when trained alone and tried in cheekpieces and therefore decided to apply cheekpieces and try to make the running today.
He informed the stewards that Shane Jackson had made a report at Punchestown for which the Turf Club had no record but he himself had not done so either through his representative at the racecourse or at a later stage.
Evidence was also heard from Mr Andrew Shaw Turf Club NH Handicapper. Mr Rothwell consented to a post race examination to be carried out by Mr John Noonan, Racecourse Vet, and in the presence of Mr Andrew Tyrell Turf Club Vet. Mr Noonan reported Rockers Field to have a mild lung haemorrhage post race on endoscopic examination.
Having considered the evidence, the stewards were satisfied that Mr Rothwell was in breach of rule 213 (ii) and (iii) and fined him E3,000.
