Shark Hanlon opens up on 'yard-ending' 10-month ban
Irish horse trainer John 'Shark' Hanlon looked visibly emotional as he has opened up on the 10-month ban which has rocked his yard. Hanlon told how he is being forced to send a large number of horses to the sales after being handed the lengthy suspension.
The trainer has been punished by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s referrals committee after they found him to have acted in a manner that “caused significant prejudice to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of the sport of racing” in the removal of a dead horse from his yard earlier this year.
The horse was carried on an open trailer which was towed by Hanlon’s branded horsebox, with the body left on display to the public after a tarpaulin became displaced during the journey, reports the Irish Mirror.
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Hanlon has appealed the suspension, which is to begin on December 1, while five months of the ban may be deferred if the trainer abides by the conditions imposed by the Referrals Committee during the first half of the term.
"This horse goes to the sales. I think we have 30 horses for the sales with the conditions we're in in Ireland at the moment. I have no choice," Hanlon told Sky Sports Racing after he recorded a winner with Lion City at Sedgefield on Monday.
"I think that I'm being very badly done wrong with what they done to me but I've no say in that.
"I've 30 horses to go to the sales now. It took me 15-20 years to build my yard and now it's all over so we're appealing but I don't think it will make any difference.
"But I just feel that we're being awful done wrong. I took a horse from a field, was I to leave him in the field and let the foxes and dogs eat him? Was I to do what I done, bring him down, I had a rug on the horse, I had the horse covered and the rug fell off him or the tarp fell off him but like you're right and you're wrong.
"If you leave him in the field, you're wrong. If you bring him down the road, you're wrong so I just feel very hard done by of the whole thing to tell you the truth."
Lion City was partnered to victory by the trainer's son Paddy and the handler feels that the 17-year-old is the one who will miss out most due to the ban.
He added: "Paddy's the lad that's going to miss out. He's well able to ride and we won't have horses for him."
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