The Cheltenham festival-winning trainer Tony Mullins narrowly avoided losing his licence yesterday after the Turf Club Referrals Committee heard that an inspection at his premises in Co Kilkenny last August found that over half the horses listed as being trained by him were not present. Brian O'Connor, Racing Correspondent, reports.

The committee described the offence as a "blatant and absolute disregard of the rules" and said that if it wasn't for Mullins's excellent record, and the manner in which he met the case, he could have been disqualified.

Instead, Mullins was fined €3,900 and was also ordered to pay €1,000 in legal costs.

Mullins, who trained Pedrobob to land the County Hurdle at the Cheltenham festival in March, returned 58 horses as being in training with him but an inspection on August 12th of 2006 by two Turf Club officials found that 30 of those horses were not there.

Under Turf Club rules, the regulatory body has to be informed if a horse dies, is sold or is gelded.

Yesterday's hearing committee decided that this case was the most serious case of its type to come before them and fined Mullins €130 for each of the 30 horses that were missing. He also had to pay legal costs.

Afterwards, Mullins said he was "devastated" at the outcome and added: "I am as shocked as I have ever been in my life. In fact I am so shocked that I can't even comment right now on whether or not I am going to appeal."

Mullins was not present on the day the inspection took place.

"My son is doing quite well at pony racing and I was with him down at the Dingle Derby meeting for the weekend when the inspection happened," he said.

"I am absolutely shocked that they can infer that I was disregarding the rules of racing.

"I'm astounded at that. At that time of year, every yard has horses that are on a summer break or back with their owners," he added.

Mullins is a former champion jockey who rode the legendary Dawn Run, trained by his father Paddy, in many of her races.