Proving intent is becoming an impossible task for racing's regulators

Shane Foley and Christophe Soumillon both had partial victories in their Appeals last week, but in each case it appears the raceday stewards made errors in their original decisions - and that is becoming a worrying trend.

Foley's Suspension Reduced on Appeal

In Foley's case, the stewards at Naas on 24th June had determined that he had ridden improperly when winning a race and suspended him for 9 days (his second such offence). That is to say, he had intentionally impeded another runner in the race.

The rider appealed this decision on the grounds that the raceday stewards had erred in their decision.

While the Appeal Body agreed with Foley that he was not guilty of 'improper riding,' they ended up finding him guilty of the lesser offence of 'careless riding,' and his 9 days turned into 6 days.

Shane Foley also had 50% of his Appeal deposit returned, but overall there is no getting away from the fact that the Naas stewards made a mistake on the day, having found the rider guilty of a more serious offence than he had actually committed.

Soumillon's Case Also Overturned in Part

Similarly, Christophe Soumillon's Appeal against his 'riding to benefit a stablemate' sanction imposed by the Royal Ascot stewards saw his suspension reduced from 8 days to 5 days on Appeal.

The Appeal verdict in this case also found that the raceday stewards at Ascot had erred to some degree in their original decision, as it could not be proved that Soumillon had ridden to 'team tactics' to give an advantage to stablemate Gstaad - even though an advantage was gained by his stablemate - and the correct offence should have been 'interference.'

Basically, they ended up splitting hairs. Soumillon's actions caused interference and by doing so gave an advantage to his more fancied stablemate, but the Judicial Panel was not satisfied that he intended to do so.

The Problem With Proving Intent

The crux of the issue in both of these cases is that it is close to impossible to prove intent. Almost all of the most serious offences that can be committed by a jockey involve the rider having a degree of premeditation, but how can you ever prove it?

Article highlights:

• Foley's 9-day ban for improper riding was cut to 6 days after Appeal found him guilty of the lesser charge of careless riding.
• Soumillon's suspension dropped from 8 to 5 days after the Panel ruled his interference couldn't be proven intentional.
• Both cases reveal raceday stewards struggling to prove premeditation - a near-impossible standard.
• The IHRB's 2025 Annual Report shows falling stable staff numbers, rising trainer licenses, and yet another senior redundancy.

IHRB Annual Report: Fewer Staff, More Trainers

Staying on the regulatory front, the IHRB published their 2025 Annual Report last week. In truth, there was nothing earth-shattering in it, because most of the focus was aimed at telling us that the organisation is on track to deliver its promised reforms outlined in its Statement of Strategy 2024-2027.

One little snippet that caught my attention is that the number of registered stable employees has fallen for the fourth year in a row.

In 2022 there were 3,630 full and part-time staff working in racing yards across Ireland. That number had dropped to 3,457 last year.

The number of licensed riders (Flat, National Hunt and Amateur combined) is also slightly down on recent years, but more surprisingly, the number of licensed trainers is on the rise. In fact, the number of trainers with National Hunt licenses in 2025 was at its highest level since before Covid. Not what you might expect to see - more licensed trainers, but fewer staff.

Another Senior Role Made Redundant

The IHRB's structural changes moved up a gear last week when their board approved the decision to make the role of Head of Governance and Legal redundant.

It is not immediately obvious why such an important role should no longer be relevant to the organisation, but it means that one of the IHRB's most senior staff, Cliodhna Guy, will leave the organisation with almost immediate effect (leaving on 10th July).

Guy served as interim CEO for a number of months after Denis Egan took his controversial early retirement package in October 2021, before handing over the reins to Darragh O'Loughlin when he was appointed to the position in June 2022.

Guy's redundancy follows on from last year's equally peculiar decision by the IHRB to make the positions of Head and Deputy Head of Security and Investigations surplus to requirements.

Ground Conditions Remain Biggest Headache

One last point in relation to the IHRB is that their Annual Report once again showed that the number one reason for non-runners at the races continues to be the state of the ground.

Whenever there is the slightest variance from the official going description at declaration time (48 hours before a race) to the actual going description on raceday, we see a host of non-runners.

Presenting ground conditions that suit all runners at turf fixtures is nigh on impossible, but a repeat of the farce we witnessed at Limerick last week must not be repeated.

The Limerick Watering Farce

A section of the track, usually around 8 metres in width along the racing line, had been artificially watered in advance of last Thursday's jumping fixture at the course. The official description for the day was Good ground, but apparently this only referred to the watered section.

Jockey Danny Mullins realised that the ground on the wide outside of the track had not been watered and would therefore ride much faster. The enterprising rider then proceeded to win two races by keeping his mounts on the harder ground throughout their races.

In order to literally close the door after these horses had bolted, the IHRB officials then delayed proceedings to add a series of dolls (Danny Dolls) on the outside of the track for the later races on the card to prevent any other riders taking advantage of the quicker ground.

Managing the course must be an infinitely easier task at an all-weather venue, and I'd imagine the IHRB's Clerks of the Courses will be fighting over which one of them gets appointed to Tipperary's new All-weather track when it opens next year.