British Horseracing Authority stands firm on owners’ lay bets

• Owners will still be barred from laying own horses • Appeal board says Findlay ban was too harsh The British Horseracing Authority will not change its rule that bars owners from laying their horses, even when they stand to win much more from win bets, following the decision of its appeal board to quash Harry Findlay’s six-month suspension from racing, imposed by the BHA’s disciplinary panel last month. The board’s written reasons for allowing Findlay’s appeal expressed its “clear view that Mr Findlay should not have been disqualified”. It pointed out that in a key race at Chepstow, in which Findlay laid his horse Gullible Gordon in running having placed a substantially larger win bet prior to the off, “there was no suggestion that the integrity of the race or Gullible Gordon’s running in it was in jeopardy [and] it is clear that Mr Findlay’s best financial interests lay in the horse winning.” In allowing his appeal against the severity of his penalty, the Board instead imposed a fine of £4,500, the amount by which Findlay’s profit increased when Gullible Gordon proved successsful, as against a straight win bet. No further fine was imposed, in recognition of the fact that the Board could not “undo the fact that Mr Findlay has suffered disqualification and the indignity of it for over a month now.” Findlay was originally charged by the BHA with two offences of laying bets on Gullible Gordon.

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