Group One-winning jockey Eddie Ahern has failed in his appeal against a 10-year disqualification.
Following the conclusion of a British Horseracing Authority corruption hearing at the end of May, Ahern, 35, was found guilty of conspiring to commit a corrupt or fraudulent practice in relation to the laying of five horses between September 2010 and February 2011.
More significantly, he was also found in breach of intentionally failing to ensure Judgethemoment was ridden on its merits at Lingfield in January 2011, and of passing information for reward.
The Jane Chapple-Hyam trained gelding finished last of seven runners in a two-mile (3200m) handicap, having been well clear at the halfway stage.
Ahern’s explanation for the ride was that he misjudged the pace and did not realise he was so far ahead.
The BHA disciplinary panel said it “could not accept that a jockey of Ahern’s experience, especially on the all-weather at Lingfield, could have made an error of such an extent”.
County Tipperary-born Ahern was champion apprentice in Ireland in 1997 with his first major winner in Britain coming the following year when the Michael Grassick-trained San Sebastian claimed the Ascot Stakes at Royal Ascot.
In recent years he has been used by a number of top trainers, including Sir Henry Cecil, for whom he won the King Edward VII Stakes at Royal Ascot in 2009 on the Khalid Abdullah-owned Father Time.
Ahern appealed on the basis that the disciplinary panel’s reasons were insufficient to support their initial decision and there was insufficient evidence to support some of their findings.
He also contested that the punishment was “disproportionate to the conduct found to have occurred such that no reasonable panel would have imposed them”.
Both claims were dismissed.
