'Maybe I'm hoping for a miracle' - Ronan McNally appeal against record 12-year integrity ban starts on Monday

Ronan McNally fears he may need "a miracle" when his appeal against an unprecedented 12-year ban for integrity breaches begins at the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's Curragh offices on Monday.

The County Armagh trainer was also fined €50,000 and ordered to repay prize-money of around €13,400 after he was found guilty by an IHRB referral panel of ten of the 11 charges brought against him. An investigation established he had prevented Dreal Deal and The Jam Man from running on their merits before executing an array of high-profile gambles, concluding that he had behaved in such a way as to have done "serious damage to the interests of horseracing in Ireland".

McNally was convicted of conspiring with fellow trainer David Dunne to conceal his ownership of horses in Dunne's care, and of fraudulent practice in relation to the passing on of inside information to the point-to-point handler Ciaran Fennessy. Dunne's licence was suspended for two years, with the final 18 months suspended. He was fined €5,000 and ordered to repay prize-money totalling €27,000. 

Dunne accepted the findings but failed in his appeal against the severity of his sanctions, and was also hit with a further €2,000 costs charge.

Fennessy was disqualified for three years, with the final two years suspended, and fined €5,000, while amateur jockey Eoin O'Brien was banned for 21 days after being retrospectively found guilty of preventing Dreal Deal from running on his merits at Navan in July 2020. Neither Fennessy nor O'Brien appealed, so McNally is the only one contesting the panel's actual findings.

Ronan McNally celebrates after Dreal Deal's victory in the Grade 2 Moscow Flyer Novice Hurdle at PunchestownCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

His 12-year disqualification is the longest warning off handed to anyone in Irish racing in modern times, and means he cannot access any licensed premises during his exclusion.  

"I'm just hopeful that some sort of common sense will prevail," McNally said on Sunday. "Maybe I'm hoping for a miracle, but we'll see. Hopefully we'll get a fair hearing and if we get that hopefully things will change."

Asked if he has had any further communication explaining how the original panel, which was chaired by Mr Justice Brian McGovern, settled on such a swingeing ban, he added: "No, no-one has explained it. No-one I've spoken to in England or Ireland or anywhere else can understand it at all, there is no sense or logic to it at all. We can't see anything that has been presented in front of us to justify it. No-one can." 

As it stands, the trainer, who holds a restricted licence, would not be able to attend race meetings with his son Tubs should he progress from pony racing to an apprenticeship in the coming years. McNally also says the episode has taken a toll on his kitchen fitting business.

"That I'm not even allowed to go racing to see my son riding or take him racing, that's the cruel element," he said. "It's pretty outrageous. I don't think I've done anything to justify a sanction like that. My business has taken a knock too. My whole life has been affected dramatically while this case has been going on. Trying to deal with this mentally means nothing in my life is going as well as it was, it has taken over my life."

Three days have been set aside for the appeal. However, recent precedents would suggest an outcome is unlikely to be delivered this week. 

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Ronan McNally appeals against 12-year ban but other guilty parties accept IHRB findings  

Scandal brings scrutiny - and McNally case may have big implications for Irish racing  

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