Coach Luke Comer fails in appeal against suspension

Billionaire Luke Comer has lost an appeal against the Irish Horseracing Authority seeking to overturn a three-year suspension of his trainer’s license, the organization confirmed in a statement on Thursday. The suspension is set to take effect on July 15. The three-member appeal panel was chaired by Judge Peter Kelly, with Laurence McFerran and Dr. Paddy Molony also participating in the hearing.

The trainer was suspended last September and ordered to pay over €750,000 in fines and legal costs after 12 of his horses were found to contain traces of the banned substances methandienone (MD) and methyltestosterone (MT). The most notable of these was He Knows No Fear, who finished fourth at Leopardstown in October 2021 before testing positive along with 11 other horses during a raid on his stable the following month. He Knows No Fear had already won an unprecedented race at Leopardstown in 2020 at odds of 300-1.

The trainer was fined 5,000 euros in connection with the positive test of “He Knows No Fear” and a further 5,000 euros for each of the 11 other horses.

Comer, who “claims he was not guilty of any wrongdoing”, was also found guilty of “acting in a manner prejudicial to the integrity, orderly conduct or good regulation of horse racing”. Due to the large number of horses testing positive and the “reputational damage” to the sport, he was fined €20,000.

Comer’s appeal for adverse conduct was subsequently dismissed, but the finding and the €20,000 fine were quashed. His appeal for making misleading statements in his witness statement was allowed. The €5,000 fine was also quashed.

The IHRB itself had lodged an appeal against the alleged leniency of the original sentences imposed by the Referral Committee. This appeal was also rejected.

As the appellate court explained in its statement, Comer had only limited success on the costs of the appeal.

“The areas in which he was successful took up only a small portion of the time of the appeal process. A generous compensation in this regard would be 15 percent.”

“He also rejected the IHRB’s appeal for leniency. But that took only a tiny amount of time and even if he were awarded costs in that regard, it would be a trivial matter in the overall context.

“In all the circumstances, we are provisionally of the view that justice is done in this case by ordering Mr Comer to pay 75 percent of the costs of the appeal to the IHRB.”

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This story was published in Europe and Shared News Europe and tagged appeal, fine, He knows no fear, IHRB, Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, Leopardstown, licence withdrawal, Luke Comer, methandienone, methyltestosterone.