Paul Gilligan will face a British Horseracing Authority (BHA) rehearing on Tuesday after an original six-month ban for the Co Galway trainer was set aside earlier this year due to an appearance of bias.
Athenry-based Gilligan, a Cheltenham festival winner in 2010, was suspended for six months in March after being found guilty of running a horse at Uttoxeter which, the BHA concluded, had previously run at an officially unrecognised "flapper" meeting in Ireland in 2014.
However the panel which arrived at that decision was chaired by solicitor Matthew Lohn who it was later revealed was a client of the BHA and had been paid for private advice.
That information emerged during a case involving cross-channel trainer Jim Best who was originally banned for four years for ordering two horses to be stopped. That suspension was quashed in April. A verdict on the rehearing into the Best case will be delivered on Monday.
‘Separate cases’
"These are two completely separate cases. The only similarity is the Lohn factor. If by chance they convict Jim Best on Monday it might blow wind in the sails of the BHA but either way it won't affect us," Gilligan's solicitor, Michael Keane said on Sunday.
Gilligan denies the charge of running a racehorse at a “flap” and Keane has criticised the delay in organising a rehearing.
“My view is that the BHA case against Paul is weak. It is purely an issue of identification of two horses. Paul is a small trainer and small trainers have it tough enough as it is. My concern is to allow Paul get on with his career and his life and attract owners,” Keane said.
“We will see what happens with Jim Best. They are two different cases under two different rules of racing so win lose or draw the verdict will make no difference to us. Paul’s hearing will be on Tuesday and Wednesday,” he added.
Best is hoping to get the green light to continue his career after a prolonged and controversial process which has taken place after the trainer's former conditional jockey, Paul John, alleged he had been instructed by Best to stop two horses last December.
