first word
Take BHA governance away
The stop-start case regarding trainer Dan Skelton’s involvement in the sale of George Gently does not cast the many-headed BHA in a particularly good light
W
E’D LIKE to start by wishing all our readers a very happy and successful 2022. Some publications have produced the annual “what do we think is going to happen this year” articles, judging by the imponderable and unxpected bloodstock year of 2021, we don’t think any predictions are worth the paper they are written on. We started 2021 in the thick of pandemic and it meant that our industry firmly entered the online sale era – I worked at Tattersalls for the February Sale at which not one horse, or one consignor, was on the sale ground. Two buyers did turn up unawares that the sale was a virtual auction and had to leave quickly before Newmarket’s COVID police arrived. The only action in the ring was from behind the rostrum, online and via the Tattersalls bloodstock team, sat behind a bank of desks and taking phone bids, a sight reminiscent of the City bankers in the 1980s. The sale worked, horses were bought and sold, but it was not really a satisfactory way to conduct an auction. Since then, however, a number of online-only auctions have taken place with the computer taking over auctioneer duites, internet-placed bids have been registered in growing numbers at the “real” sales, and a new internet-only bloodstock sales company has emerged. And, despite everything that last year threw at the world, unexpectedly European sale companies were able to post the much-used moniker “record-breaking renewal” on so many of their post-sale press report headlines. And that was across the board, too – for both Flat and NH sales, from horses in training sales to foals, broodmares and yearling auctions, and concerning sales held in England, Ireland, France and Germany. And, even more of a shock story, a significant number of British breeders made a profit on their youngstock. Who would have thought that would have been a thing this time last year? Can we predict a repeat for 2022? Who knows... But there were plenty of dififcult stories, too, in 2021. The long-discussed Bryony Frost and Robbie Dunne case, Graham Gibbons found guilty in court for dangerous
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Trainer Dan Skelton
riding causing Freddy Tylicki to suffer his life-changing injuries, the Gordon Elliott suspension, Bob Baffert’s suspension and, as we went to press, trainer Dan Skelton was in the process of being charged by the BHA for breach of the trainers’ code of conduct concerning his handling the 2016 sale of the gelding George Gently from Yorton Farm’s David Futter to an owners’ syndicate headed by Tony Holt. The gelding was sold to the syndicate after finishing second in a race at Enghein under Skelton’s brother Harry, but shortly after was found to have heat in his leg and was off the track for a year and a half. He finally made his British debut in February 2018, but was pulled up at Southwell before finishing seventh of eight at Kempton - after which he was sold on for just £1,800. Holt has subsequently alleged that Futter then told him that, unbeknown to Holt, Skelton had owned a third of the horse when it ran in France – and he received a third of the £130,000 sale price in 2016. Skelton and Futter refute that claim, with the trainer insisting that a payment of £43,333 to him from Futter, assuming from George Gently’s sale proceeds, was in lieu of training fees of Futter’s horses at his yard, and that Skelton did not have a share in the horse. After a 15-month enquiry the BHA threw out the syndicate’s complaint in October 2019. Apparently a letter from its head of regulation, Andrew Howell, explained to Holt that the case against Skelton was not strong enough to initiate any action against the trainer. Howell wrote: “The BHA acknowledges that it is regrettable that Mr Skelton did not provide prior notice to you that he would benefit financially from the transaction of George Gently. Following this investigation, the BHA would fully expect Mr Skelton to provide information of this nature to his owners in the future and the BHA has made its expectations with regards to the code of conduct to Mr Skelton in concluding this matter.” The letter seemingly accepts that Skelton had not been clear as regards his ownership interest in the horse, yet there was not even a slap on the wrist (possible blind eye turned) and despite all of this taking place through the publishing of the BHA’s much-lauded and expensively
