Owners found guilty of instructing jockey Ray Dawson not to win a race at Yarmouth

Two owners have been found guilty at a disciplinary hearing on Thursday of instructing a jockey not to win a race on their horse.

Royston Barney and his father Royston Cooper were found to be in one breach of rule (F) 41 for instructing jockey Ray Dawson and former trainer Henry Spiller to stop Enough Already from winning at Yarmouth on May 26, 2022. The horse won by a head as the 2-1 second favourite.

A second charge against Cooper alone for a breach of the same rule concerning an earlier race Brighton on May 17, 2022, when Enough Already finished fourth, was dismissed. The penalty for the Yarmouth offences will be determined by the panel based on their judgement and announced at a later date. It has the potential to reach 25 years.

After three days of evidence, the verdict was delivered by panel chairman James O’Mahony, who said: "We are satisfied on all the evidence . . . that far from just wanting the horse not to win [at Yarmouth], both respondents, Royston Cooper and Royston Barney, did instruct Henry Spiller and Ray Dawson in clear terms that the horse is not to win."

Ray Dawson: informed Yarmouth stewards he had been asked to stop a horse from winningCredit: Steve Bardens (Getty Images)

After the victory at Yarmouth, Dawson, who had not reported the incident at Brighton, informed the stewards at the course he had been asked to stop the horse from winning and had been threatened in the winner's enclosure, and on the way to the weighing room, by the owners.

The defence proposed that Dawson, Spiller and Craig Marshall, a friend of Spiller, had deliberately spoken negatively about Enough Already's chances to Cooper and Barney to ensure the owners did not back the horse in order for them to get better odds to bet on the horse themselves.

It was disclosed at the hearing that Cooper and Barney had won approximately £100,000 on a Spiller-trained horse in a race at Chelmsford between Brighton and Yarmouth.

Dawson claimed Cooper, who was present at Brighton on behalf of Barney, the registered owner of Enough Already, was "literally begging" for the horse to be prevented from winning.

However, regarding the Brighton incident, the panel said they were not satisfied "that the expression of his [Cooper's] wish that the horse should not win could be elevated into an instruction that the horse should be stopped".

O’Mahony added: "It is not for us to interpret rule 41 in a way that stretches the everyday definition of the word instruction. If anything, it is for the BHA to consider whether the wording of the rule needs redrafting to cater for what we are satisfied happened in this Brighton case."

Earlier in the week, Spiller, who quit training in February, was pressed on why he had not reported either incident, and why he had said during an inquiry at Yarmouth that Cooper and Barney had not told him to stop the horse, to which he replied: "I feared for my life, that's why I said that."

Full written reasons will be given at a later date before the penalty hearing on September 12.

Read more on this story:

Owner accused of making 'unsubstantiated' claims about Ray Dawson following gelding's victory at Yarmouth 

Owners 'were literally begging me' not to win at Brighton, alleges jockey Ray Dawson 

Former trainer Henry Spiller and jockey Ray Dawson allege owners threatened them following gelding's Yarmouth win 

The Front Runner is our unmissable email newsletter available exclusively to Members' Club Ultimate subscribers. Chris Cook, the reigning Racing Writer of the Year, provides his take on the day's biggest stories and tips for the upcoming racing every morning from Monday to Friday. Not a Members' Club Ultimate subscriber? Click here to join today and also receive our Ultimate Daily emails plus our full range of fantastic website and newspaper content.