Howard Johnson Banned From Training for Four Years

UrbanSea

From the racing post website(I don't know how to insert an article)


''HOWARD JOHNSON has been banned from racing for four years following a BHA inquiry into charges relating to horse welfare and administering prohibited substances.

The charges Johnson faced centred on the running of Striking Article eight times after the gelding had undergone a denerving operation called a palmar neurectomy, which causes horses to lose feeling in the back of the foot.

Striking Article was put down in February of last year after pulling up lame at Musselburgh, at which time it was discovered the denerving operation had taken place.

Horses who have undergone a denerving operation are barred from competiting on welfare and jockey safety grounds, something Johnson denied being aware of. Johnson was also accused of administering steroids to three other horses, an act the trainer claimed to believe was allowed under the rules of racing.

The judgement of the disciplinary panel said Johnson's defence "revealed a cavalier indifference towards the rules of racing, which govern not only the administration of the sport but also fundamental issues concerning integrity and the welfare of horses".

Regarding Striking Article, the panel said Johnson's actions "jeopardise[d] the future welfare of a gelding in training and the safety of those jockeys and stable staff who were engaged to ride it".

Johnson was banned for three years for running the gelding after the denerving operation.

In administering steroids to horses in training, for which Johnson was banned for one year, the panel said: "Johnson’s actions have seriously prejudiced the integrity and good reputation of horseracing in Great Britain."

Johnson faced a maximum ban of ten years and had been told by his principal owner, Graham Wylie, that his 60 horses would be moved or sold if the trainer received a ban of six months or longer.

The County Durham-based trainerwas informed of the disciplinary panel's findings last Tuesday, but sentence was not passed down until noon on Friday.''

UrbanSea

He must have thought the disciplinary panel were a shower of clowns. How could you claim you didn't know steroids were banned?

mike65

That's shocking, the behaviour of some fly by night "trainer" with a tiny string not one of the leading operations in northern Britain.

ATR story

A statement from the BHA disciplinary panel said that at the outset of the hearing Johnson had admitted being in breach of the rules stating he should not have run Striking Article, and his position was that when the declarations were made he was not aware of the prohibition under the rules.

It said Johnson accepted that, by being unaware of the the rules, he did not fulfil the requirement that he conduct his business of training racehorses with reasonable skill and care. The panel said Johnson made no admissions in respect of the anabolic steroid charges.

Not knowing the rules is some joke.

Thud

..and Graham Wylie backed him up, has lost a lot of respect from me:

"Wylie said: "I'm absolutely, totally shocked. Howard has
been treated like a criminal and he is not.
"I think it's a disgusting decision and I'm disappointed
for Howard.
"I just feel so sorry for him because that is not Howard
and he looks after his horses incredibly well. He would never do
anything to harm a horse.
"I think they (BHA) have come down too heavy handed for the
charges that have been made against him.
"It is a very sad day for northern racing as it has lost a
very good trainer and they have also lost a very good owner.
"Most of my horses will go the sales and the rest of those
that I keep will either go down south to be trained or to
Ireland. I shall spend the weekend thinking about it.
"It's a very sad day."

http://www.weatherbys-group.com/node/1725

UrbanSea

''Too heavy handed''


I thought they were incredibly lenient.

smartaform

He would have got the 10 years anywhere else...
Maybe even longer in some jurisdictions ....

Thud

smartaform wrote: »

He would have got the 10 years anywhere else...
Maybe even longer in some jurisdictions ....

prob would have got away with it here though...

knighted_1

UrbanSea wrote: »

He must have thought the disciplinary panel were a shower of clowns. How could you claim you didn't know steroids were banned?

judged and executed on the internet


steroids are allowed to be administered to racehorses only while they are out of training ,in training they are not allowed ,so for six months of the year you can give them once they out of system by the time they race
how do yis think that so many two year olds are able to win first time out ? yes a winter on steroids ,

WHIP IT!

knighted_1 wrote: »

how do yis think that so many two year olds are able to win first time out ? yes a winter on steroids

Yes, of course, and no other reason either - nothing to do with talent, good training, proper classification, a good ride by a jockey, racing luck... no, no - it must be the steroids! :rolleyes:

ft9

Got what he deserved imo.

I'd love to know how it would have been dealt with in Ireland.

knighted_1

WHIP IT! wrote: »

Yes, of course, and no other reason either - nothing to do with talent, good training, proper classification, a good ride by a jockey, racing luck... no, no - it must be the steroids! :rolleyes:

how do i prove my point and also how do you prove yours .?
its a discussion board and im passing on the benefit of my past experiece as an owner ,so no need for sarky comments or roll eyes .discuss your point without resorting to sacarsm .

knighted_1

http://www.steroids.info/2011/04/20/steroids-side-effects-in-racehorses-are-temporary-and-reversible/

http://www.thehorse.com/ViewArticle.aspx?ID=15889http://www.ehow.com/how_2157368_identify-steroid-use-racehorses.html

UrbanSea

I was aware they were allowed to be administered when not running knighted,but come on surely he'd know they aren't allowed run on them??

UrbanSea

Howard Johnson has retired from training.


http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/howard-johnson-retires-following-four-year-ban/897864/

mike65

No surprise. The BBC radio making this their 2nd story on the evening news programmes which is a surprise.

UrbanSea

What was first? Riots?

mike65

Yes, well the court appearances and the dead pensioner

Harry Angstrom

ft9 wrote: »

Got what he deserved imo.

I'd love to know how it would have been dealt with in Ireland.

Good riddance to Johnson. Never liked him anyway.

If it happened in Ireland, he'd probably get a week's ban which he'd overturn on appeal.

trebor28

Poor oul howard thinks someone has it in for him, trying to do him in!

http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/howard-johnson-andrea-graham-wylie-we-acted-on-tip-off-over-johnson-says-bha/898563/latest/

poor misfortune!

<snip>

convert

Hi Thud,

Can you provide a link to the interview with Wylie you posted above? You can either post it below and send it to me via PM, and then I'll include it in your earlier post. Thanks, C.

convert

Just a reminder to everyone to be careful what they post so as to avoid any potential problems. Thanks, C.

UrbanSea

Convert,will you PM me what the interview was about and I'll get the link

convert

It's OK, thanks. Thud has PM'd me, so I'm re-editing the post now.

Colonel Sanders

Haven't been on here much recently (roll on the jumps..) so only commenting now

Must admit the punishment seemed incredibly lenient to me when compared to Eamon Tyrell getting 3 years for a "stopping" incident, a sentence which the Racingpost was heavily critical of at the time of the appeal being thrown out.

UrbanSea

I wonder had that case anything to do with the BHA putting a foot down on prospective Irish trainers thinking of bringing their horses over and have a few low key runs in the UK before a gamble.

hucklebuck

The BHA are spineless, it will be interesting to see if Henderson even gets a ban given he is due to appear from as a result of a runner in February testing positive and the fact he was banned before and the Binocular incident. :rolleyes:

I was surprised Wylie came out and said he had sent 10 horses to Nicholls a couple of days before the BHA decision was announced, two/ three days would not have hurt.