Jockey James banned over dead-horse video
Amateur jockey Rob James has been handed a 12-month ban, the last eight of which are suspended, following an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board hearing into the video posted on social media of him sitting on a dead horse. Just days earlier an image of Grand National-winning trainer Gordon Elliott sitting on a dead horse was posted on Twitter.
Rob James, the Irish amateur jockey who appeared in a video on social media jumping on the back of a dead racehorse, has been given a 12-month ban – with eight months suspended – following a referral hearing of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board last night.
The video appeared three days after a photo of Gordon Elliott sitting astride a dead horse on his gallops started circulating the weekend before last. Elliott had his licence suspended for a year with six months suspended and had to pay €15,000 costs at his referral hearing last Friday.
James, who rode Milan Native to victory for Elliott at last year’s Cheltenham Festival, could not have ridden at next week’s meeting anyway because the BHA does not consider amateurs elite athletes. Like Elliott he was found to have brought racing into disrepute. As well as having his riding licence removed for four months, his point-to-point handler’s licence was also suspended.
When it appeared the jockey was quick to apologise for the video which was taken in 2016 describing his actions as “wholly inappropriate and disrespectful to a lovely fiveyear-old mare, who unfortunately suffered a sudden cardiac arrest while at exercise earlier that morning, April 30 2016.”
Since 2012, Wexford-based James has ridden 235 point-to-point winners including 16 during the current Covid interrupted season.
Meanwhile Julie Harrington, the new chief executive of the British Horseracing Authority, said that her organisation was seeking clarification from Ireland on the conditions of the licence held by Denise “Sneezy” Foster ahead of next week’s Cheltenham Festival.
Foster was appointed to hold the licence at Elliott’s Cullentra House at the weekend following the trainer’s suspension. She moved her 10 horses in soon after.