Trainer Karl Burke has been warned off for 12 months following the conclusion of the BHA's investigation into alleged race fixing.
Trainer disqualified over race-fixing allegations
Middleham trainer Karl Burke has been warned off for 12 months following the conclusion of the British Horseracing Authority's investigation into alleged race fixing.
The disciplinary panel, which had already seen jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams hit with bans, also disqualified former owner Miles Rodgers for life.
Burke was found guilty of supplying information to Rodgers, for associating in relation to horseracing with Rodgers, who was a disqualified person for two years from 2 April 2004, and misleading BHA investigators when interviewed in August 2008.
His penalty will not start until July 28 - the day after the time allowed for lodging an appeal.
"It will be for the Appeal Board to decide whether to extend that stay of the penalty if he does in fact appeal," a BHA statement said.
"It will also enable Burke to make the application his counsel foreshadowed at the hearing for some form of dispensation from the full effects of a disqualification if he still wishes to do so.
"As the Panel does not know of the grounds for such an application, this should not be seen as any encouragement to make it or to think that it might be granted, but it is right to identify that Burke has the opportunity."
Inquiry
Burke was arrested but released without trial by police prior to the Old Bailey trial in 2007 in which Lynch, Williams, Rodgers and Kieren Fallon were all acquitted.
The BHA opened their own inquiry after concluding its review of evidence in the case, which resulted in Lynch and Williams admitting charges of supplying Rodgers with inside information on 12 races in 2004, as well as failing to supply information requested by the BHA team.
Lynch also owned up to a charge of betting via Rodgers and stopping a horse from running on its merits.
Williams was banned for three months while Lynch, who is now based in America, paid a £50,000 fine and agreed not to apply for a British licence for 12 months.
The disciplinary panel said that it recognised "a penalty of disqualification has a potentially very serious effect on his owners and employees especially."
But despite that, the panel "felt driven to conclude that it was necessary to impose a disqualification on Burke, and that the proper period was 12 months, bringing into account the various features of this case."
Burke declined to make any comment until he had spoken to his legal team. "I won't be making any comment until I've talked to my QC and solicitors. We'll make a statement then," he said.
The Middleham-based handler has been enjoying a fine season and recently saddled Lord Shanakill to Group One success in France.
Rodgers 'wreaked havoc'
Regarding Rodgers, the panel added: "This is an obvious case for an indefinite exclusion order: Rodgers has wreaked havoc with the sport.
"The exclusion order will commence immediately and the Panel directs that no application by him for any relief from this indefinite exclusion should be entertained for 10 years.
"If he ever does apply, it would be necessary for him at least to produce credible evidence that he is a changed man who can be trusted to abide by the Rules, rather than a self-certified character reference.
"But even that sort of evidence is unlikely to lead to a change in the indefinite exclusion order unless there are compelling reasons for it."
