Trainer ‘Shark’ Hanlon is free to run horses again from this weekend after the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board approved the return of his licence.
In December Hanlon began a six-month suspension after an incident last year involving the transportation of a dead horse from his Co Carlow yard.
Hanlon apologised after images of his horse box pulling a trailer with a dead horse in it through a village in Co Kilkenny were widely circulated on social media. He later explained a tarpaulin covering the carcass had blown off during transportation to a knackery.
An IHRB referrals panel found he had acted in a manner that “caused significant prejudice to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of the sport of racing” and originally suspended him for 10 months.
Trainer ‘Shark’ Hanlon free to have runners again from this weekend after suspension lifted by IHRB
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That was reduced to six months on appeal with leave for Hanlon to apply to have the final three months suspended if meeting certain conditions.
Tara Lee Cogan assumed training duties at Hanlon’s yard until an IHRB panel convened earlier this month and restored his license on Valentine’s Day.
“They gave the licence back to me two weeks ago in fairness, but there’s a new rule in Ireland that you have to have horses in training for 14 days before you can run them, so we’ll be ready to go again from March 1st,” Hanlon said.
The bargain €850 purchase Hewick has helped Hanlon become one of the best-known figures in Irish racing through big-race victories including the Galway Plate and the King George VI Chase.
Now he is targeting the best-known race of all with Hewick being aimed at the Aintree Grand National in April.
Unsuccessful in two starts for Cogan, Hewick has a Gold Cup entry at Cheltenham, but Hanlon commented: “I think we’ll miss the Gold Cup, the National is the plan and has been for a while.
“The handicapper has dropped him a little bit after his last couple of runs and he gets in the National with 11.7 which I think is a nice weight because it looks like 10.10 could be bottom-weight, so he wouldn’t be giving loads of weight to anything.
“As long as we get good ground, that’s the main thing, and I’d rather go there fresh than be taking on Galopin Des Champs in the Gold Cup. I might give him a run over hurdles between now and then, but we’ll see.”
In other news, Constitution Hill came through a racecourse gallop at Kempton on Tuesday morning with flying colours.
The odds-on Champion Hurdle favourite was ruled out of Cheltenham a year ago when a similar workout at Kempton revealed he was suffering from a respiratory infection.
“We knew before we actually came here last year that these horses weren’t flying and it was going to be harder to get through, whereas today everything has gone perfect,” trainer Nicky Henderson said. “You would never tire of watching this horse, as that was very special. He’s very special.”
Henderson’s two Triumph Hurdle hopes, Lulamba and Palladium also impressed in workouts on the all-weather surface.
