R Tauranga 2 January 2020 – R 5 – Chair, Mr A Godsalve
ID: JCA16701
Code:
Thoroughbred
Meet Title:
Racing Tauranga - 2 January 2020
Meet Chair:
AGodsalve
Meet Committee Member 1:
ADooley
Race Date:
2020/01/02
Race Number:
R5
Decision:
As Mr Blackie has admitted the breach we find the charge proved.
Penalty:
Accordingly we imposed a fine of $1250 on Mr Blackie.
Facts:
Prior to the running of Race 5 Mr Oatham filed an Information alleging that Licensed Class A Trainer Mr Mark Blackie 'entered the horse BLOOD WARRIOR for the primary purpose of affecting the total number of horses entered and accepted for the race'.
Mr Blackie was present at the hearing.
This is an unusual charge, and the Rule, as below was read to Mr Blackie by the Chair.
Mr Blackie then said that he:
(a) Understood the Rule, and
(b) That he admitted the breach.
Rule 527 provides that 'A person shall not enter, accept or permit to be accepted, or start, a horse in a Race for the primary purpose of affecting the total number of horses entered, accepted, or started for a race'.
Background- Mr Blackie is a trainer based at the Tauranga Racecourse. He is responsible for up to 8 horses at present.
Mr Oatham told the Committee that when nominations for this race meeting were closed, it transpired that there were only 5 horses nominated for Race 5, the New World Summer Cup over 1400 metres, and for a stake of $15,000. One of the nominations was LE CASTILE, trained by Mr Blackie. LE CASTILE is a relatively well performed mare having won 5 races to date. The nomination expiry time was extended in an effort to attract more horses, and Mr Blackie then nominated the horse BLOOD WARRIOR at 7.57am on 29 December 2019.
The situation was that if the original 5 nominations were not all accepted to race, the Club may have been forced to cancel the race.
Withdrawals from the race in question were required to be notified by 10am the following day, 30 December 2019.
The fields for the meeting were released per the NZTR Website at approximately 11.30am, 30 December 2019. There were 6 horses remaining in the actual race at that time, including LE CASTILE and BLOOD WARRIOR.
At 12.05 pm that day Mr Blackie notified the NZTR Racing Bureau that BLOOD WARRIOR was to be scratched from the race.
Mr Oatham said that concerns were raised about the early scratching of BLOOD WARRIOR and information was sought about the horse. Enquiries with Racing Tauranga revealed that their training records showed that BLOOD WARRIOR had only returned to training on 23 December 2019, after having been out of work since last racing on 2 November 2019.
Mr Blackie was spoken to on the day of the race and Mr Oatham said he had been completely open and honest about what had transpired. He told Mr Oatham that his sole intention in entering BLOOD WARRIOR was to ensure that the race in question went ahead as he was anxious that he would not be able to race LE CASTILE if he had not done so. Mr Blackie told Mr Oatham that he had contacted NZTR and had been told that there needed to be a minimum of 5 runners in a race for it to be held.
Mr Oatham ended his submissions by stating that while Mr Blackie may have acted innocently, he was in breach of the Rule and that his ignorance or being unaware of the Rule was no defence for his actions.
Mr Blackie said that he agreed with everything Mr Oatham had said. He added that BLOOD WARRIOR had been back at his stables for about 2 weeks, and that he had spoken to 'another' trainer who had told him he had done a similar thing in the past. He added that he had been training from a barn at the Tauranga Racecourse for about 3 years, and accepted the Committee's view that his actions did not reflect well on the racing industry.
Submissions for Penalty:
Mr Oatham told the Committee that as far as he was aware this particular Rule had not been breached by any industry participant in the past. The Rule has been in place for a number of years. He added that he considered that manipulating a race field was a serious offence and a clear message needed to be sent that doing so was unacceptable.
Mr Oatham said that he considered that the breach could be dealt with by way of a monetary penalty and suggested a fine between $750-$1500 may be an appropriate penalty.
Mr Blackie said that he had nothing to add.
Reasons for Penalty:
The JCA Penalty Guide does not provide any indications of penalties for a breach of this Rule, noting that penalties were ' Fact Dependant'.
There have been no breaches of this Rule in the past.
The Committee took the following into consideration as mitigating factors:
1. Mr Blackie admitted the breach at the first opportunity.
2. He has no recorded history of misconduct or deception in the industry.
3. No other owner, trainer, or horse was affected by his actions.
4. He had not attempted to 'cover up' his actions.
5. While irrelevant, we accepted that he was ignorant of the Rule in question.
Against these factors we had to take into account the aggravating factors, being:
1. Mr Blackie clearly intended to deceive racing authorities by entering and accepting a horse which was unfit to race, and which he intended to withdraw to facilitate the fact that a field was constituted and the race went ahead to suit his own priority for the horse LE CASTILE.
2. As a Licensed Trainer Mr Blackie has an obligation to acquaint himself with the NZ Thoroughbred Rules of Racing, and to abide with those Rules and act accordingly.
3. We take the view that this was a matter of dishonesty and as such is a Serious Racing Offence.
The Committee's options when considering a penalty for this breach were:
Disqualification of Mr Blackie's training licence; suspension of his training licence, or a fine.
We did not consider the circumstances of this matter called for any disruption in Mr Blackie's occupation as a trainer.
Therefore we accepted that a fine was the appropriate penalty. Such a fine would need to be of a significant amount as to constitute a meaningful penalty, and we settled on a starting point of a fine of $1500. We allowed some reduction on this amount for Mr Blackie's admission and cooperation with the Stewards.
JCA Decision Fields (raw)
Dmitry: This section contains all JCA fields migrated from the raw data.
Data from these fields should be mapped appropriately to display amongst the standard fields above; please make note of any values below that are missing in the above standard fields but should be there.
hearingid: d633faddbe624964f2e6f5853137fa7e
informantnumber: A13355
horsename:
hearing_racingtype:
startdate: no date provided
newcharge: Improperly entering a horse in a race
plea: admitted
penaltyrequired: 1
decisiondate: 03/01/2020
hearing_title: R Tauranga 2 January 2020 - R 5 - Chair, Mr A Godsalve
charge:
facts:
Prior to the running of Race 5 Mr Oatham filed an Information alleging that Licensed Class A Trainer Mr Mark Blackie 'entered the horse BLOOD WARRIOR for the primary purpose of affecting the total number of horses entered and accepted for the race'.
Mr Blackie was present at the hearing.
This is an unusual charge, and the Rule, as below was read to Mr Blackie by the Chair.
Mr Blackie then said that he:
(a) Understood the Rule, and
(b) That he admitted the breach.
Rule 527 provides that 'A person shall not enter, accept or permit to be accepted, or start, a horse in a Race for the primary purpose of affecting the total number of horses entered, accepted, or started for a race'.
Background- Mr Blackie is a trainer based at the Tauranga Racecourse. He is responsible for up to 8 horses at present.
Mr Oatham told the Committee that when nominations for this race meeting were closed, it transpired that there were only 5 horses nominated for Race 5, the New World Summer Cup over 1400 metres, and for a stake of $15,000. One of the nominations was LE CASTILE, trained by Mr Blackie. LE CASTILE is a relatively well performed mare having won 5 races to date. The nomination expiry time was extended in an effort to attract more horses, and Mr Blackie then nominated the horse BLOOD WARRIOR at 7.57am on 29 December 2019.
The situation was that if the original 5 nominations were not all accepted to race, the Club may have been forced to cancel the race.
Withdrawals from the race in question were required to be notified by 10am the following day, 30 December 2019.
The fields for the meeting were released per the NZTR Website at approximately 11.30am, 30 December 2019. There were 6 horses remaining in the actual race at that time, including LE CASTILE and BLOOD WARRIOR.
At 12.05 pm that day Mr Blackie notified the NZTR Racing Bureau that BLOOD WARRIOR was to be scratched from the race.
Mr Oatham said that concerns were raised about the early scratching of BLOOD WARRIOR and information was sought about the horse. Enquiries with Racing Tauranga revealed that their training records showed that BLOOD WARRIOR had only returned to training on 23 December 2019, after having been out of work since last racing on 2 November 2019.
Mr Blackie was spoken to on the day of the race and Mr Oatham said he had been completely open and honest about what had transpired. He told Mr Oatham that his sole intention in entering BLOOD WARRIOR was to ensure that the race in question went ahead as he was anxious that he would not be able to race LE CASTILE if he had not done so. Mr Blackie told Mr Oatham that he had contacted NZTR and had been told that there needed to be a minimum of 5 runners in a race for it to be held.
Mr Oatham ended his submissions by stating that while Mr Blackie may have acted innocently, he was in breach of the Rule and that his ignorance or being unaware of the Rule was no defence for his actions.
Mr Blackie said that he agreed with everything Mr Oatham had said. He added that BLOOD WARRIOR had been back at his stables for about 2 weeks, and that he had spoken to 'another' trainer who had told him he had done a similar thing in the past. He added that he had been training from a barn at the Tauranga Racecourse for about 3 years, and accepted the Committee's view that his actions did not reflect well on the racing industry.
appealdecision:
isappeal:
submissionsfordecision:
reasonsfordecision:
Decision:
As Mr Blackie has admitted the breach we find the charge proved.
sumissionsforpenalty:
Mr Oatham told the Committee that as far as he was aware this particular Rule had not been breached by any industry participant in the past. The Rule has been in place for a number of years. He added that he considered that manipulating a race field was a serious offence and a clear message needed to be sent that doing so was unacceptable.
Mr Oatham said that he considered that the breach could be dealt with by way of a monetary penalty and suggested a fine between $750-$1500 may be an appropriate penalty.
Mr Blackie said that he had nothing to add.
reasonsforpenalty:
The JCA Penalty Guide does not provide any indications of penalties for a breach of this Rule, noting that penalties were ' Fact Dependant'.
There have been no breaches of this Rule in the past.
The Committee took the following into consideration as mitigating factors:
1. Mr Blackie admitted the breach at the first opportunity.
2. He has no recorded history of misconduct or deception in the industry.
3. No other owner, trainer, or horse was affected by his actions.
4. He had not attempted to 'cover up' his actions.
5. While irrelevant, we accepted that he was ignorant of the Rule in question.
Against these factors we had to take into account the aggravating factors, being:
1. Mr Blackie clearly intended to deceive racing authorities by entering and accepting a horse which was unfit to race, and which he intended to withdraw to facilitate the fact that a field was constituted and the race went ahead to suit his own priority for the horse LE CASTILE.
2. As a Licensed Trainer Mr Blackie has an obligation to acquaint himself with the NZ Thoroughbred Rules of Racing, and to abide with those Rules and act accordingly.
3. We take the view that this was a matter of dishonesty and as such is a Serious Racing Offence.
The Committee's options when considering a penalty for this breach were:
Disqualification of Mr Blackie's training licence; suspension of his training licence, or a fine.
We did not consider the circumstances of this matter called for any disruption in Mr Blackie's occupation as a trainer.
Therefore we accepted that a fine was the appropriate penalty. Such a fine would need to be of a significant amount as to constitute a meaningful penalty, and we settled on a starting point of a fine of $1500. We allowed some reduction on this amount for Mr Blackie's admission and cooperation with the Stewards.
penalty:
Accordingly we imposed a fine of $1250 on Mr Blackie.
hearing_type: Hearing
Rules: 527
Informant: Mr J Oatham - Chief Stipendiary Steward
JockeysandTrainer: Mr M Blackie - Class A Trainer
Otherperson:
PersonPresent:
Respondent:
StipendSteward:
raceid: 6936d0953f2134ae93244236ccfd8840
race_expapproval:
racecancelled: 0
race_noreport: 0
race_emailed1: 0
race_emailed2: 0
race_title: R5
submittochair:
race_expappcomment:
race_km:
race_otherexp:
race_chair:
race_pm1:
race_pm2:
meetid: 611e1c6a05c133c9b75b789e70d81ca6
meet_expapproval:
meet_noreport: 0
waitingforpublication: 0
meet_emailed1: 0
meet_emailed2: 0
meetdate: 02/01/2020
meet_title: Racing Tauranga - 2 January 2020
meet_expappcomment:
meet_km:
meet_otherexp:
tracklocation: racing-tauranga
meet_racingtype: thoroughbred-racing
meet_chair: AGodsalve
meet_pm1: ADooley
meet_pm2: none
name: Racing Tauranga