Diore Lia owner’s 15-year racing ban

IrIsh racing owner richard Aylward, who has dominated the build-up to the Derby with his publicity-driven running of a 1,000-1 outsider in the race, has a chequered history in the sport.

It has emerged entrepreneur Aylward spent 15 years banned from horse racing through being on the Forfeit List for not paying his trainer’s fees.

Aylward was barred following a similar stunt to this week’s hullabaloo surrounding his horse Diore Lia taking its place in the richest race ever held in Britain. It has meant Aylward having to change jockey to competent apprentice Paddy Pilley because the British horseracing Authority deemed Gina Mangan not experienced enough.

Diore Lia is running in aid of Great Ormond street hospital and Aylward said fancifully he would appeal to hospital patron the Queen about the Mangan ruling when she inspects the horses in the paddock before the race.

Aylward wanted a similar no-hoper to run in the 2002 Derby but the trainer would have none of it. This led to the owner not paying for the horse’s upkeep and saw him put him on the Forfeit List.

Aylward automatically came off the list when he eventually cleared the debt earlier this year. Diore Lia had been entered for the Derby as a yearling in Aylward’s sister’s name.

TEMPESTUOUS football pundit Stan Collymore, whose social media activities at Euro 2016 included him confronting Russian hooligans on the front line, has changed sides to the extent he will be one of the ambassadors of state-controlled TV news network Russia Today at this month’s Confederation Cup. Collymore (above) is also hosting a Russian evening in Soho next week, previewing the tournament on behalf of his new comrades at RT.

GIANT sports sponsors Emirates have agreed a Derby partnership with race backers Investec to avoid a high-profile ambush-marketing incident like the one seen before last year’s Oaks Classic.

Jockey William Buick ripped off the tape covering the Emirates branding on his Godolphin silks as he came on the course on the instruction of his bosses. The stable was fined £15,000 because the Investec contract with Epsom allows them to have clean Group One races there free of other sponsorships. But the new Emirates deal with Investec permitted Buick to have the airline name on his colours when he rode sobetsu in the Oaks yesterday without any repercussions.

THE Racing Post trade newspaper, which is in thrall to bookmaker advertising, has started on the slippery slope of covering evening meetings via the television rather than sending reporters.