Owner fined £10,000 for punching Kieren Fallon
An angry owner who punched six-times champion jockey Kieren Fallon has been fined £10,000 and given a three-month ban.
David Reynolds was found guilty of violent conduct and bringing the sport into disrepute at a British Horseracing Authority (BHA) hearing in London on Monday 29 March.
Mr Reynolds stuck Mr Fallon in the unsaddling area at Lingfield Park on 20 March after Fallon’s ride Elna Bright bumped The Scorching Wind, owned by Mr Reynolds.
The Scorching Wind finished 9th and Mr Reynolds believed that Fallon was to blame for the defeat. The stewards later found the interference to have been accidental.
Mr Reynolds also hit Elna Bright’s owner Peter Crate.
At the hearing Mr Reynolds’s solicitor read a statement saying he “deeply regretted” the incident and had tried to contact Mr Fallon to apologise in person.
The Professional Jockeys Association chief executive Kevin Darley said: “We are very pleased that the BHA has dealt with this matter swiftly and that it has been made clear that such behaviour towards jockeys is completely unacceptable.
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“We hope and believe that this was an isolated incident; however, there can be no repetition. One of the most attractive aspects of our sport is that spectators can get close to the participants.
“Jockeys welcome this and the relationship that we have with the racing public. We would not want this to be jeopardised.”
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A graduate of Exeter University, Amy joined our news team from Redpin Publishing in 2008 as news writer. She was promoted to deputy news editor in May 2013 and became news editor in April 2015. She left Horse & Hound in March 2016 to take up an editorial position in Dubai.