Tony Martin has training licence suspended with immediate effect after High Court ruling

Tony Martin's three-month suspension for breaking anti-doping rules will kick in with immediate effect after his quest for a judicial review from the High Court was unsuccessful on Thursday morning. 

Mr Justice Rory Mulcahy ruled against carrying out a judicial review of the case, meaning Martin, whose case involved a claim against the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) using a UK barrister during his appeal, is not allowed to have runners under his name until mid-August. Mr Justice Mulcahy also awarded the IHRB its legal costs of defending the application. 

Presenting Max, who was as short as 4-1 for the second division of the 2m maiden hurdle at Perth on Thursday, is now a non-runner as a consequence. 

Martin had also declared four runners on Friday and none of them will now be allowed to run. Among that quartet was Firstman, the horse who put the trainer in hot water after winning a 2m handicap at Dundalk in January of last year. He was due to contest the 1m4f handicap for lady riders at Leopardstown under Georgie Benson. 

Firstman tested positive for lidocaine, a local anaesthetic prohibited on racedays, following that emphatic victory under Billy Lee. 

Martin was originally hit with a suspended sentence of six months, along with a €10,000 fine, but the IHRB appealed against the leniency of that punishment and was successful with only three months of his ban suspended. 

That suspension was due to start on Wednesday, but Martin went to the High Court seeking a judicial review so he was allowed to run Fairytale Of New York and Squire Ohara at Tipperary on the day his suspension was supposed to start. Neither troubled the judge, finishing tenth and fifth respectively. 

It was not the first time Martin has sought a judicial review from the High Court. 

Back in 2016, he went down the same route after Pyromaniac was found guilty under the non-trier rule at Killarney. 

Martin's legal team challenged the decision of what was then the Turf Club to ban the horse for 42 days and they were granted a judicial review by Judge Richard Humphreys which allowed the horse to run in that year's Galway Hurdle, which he finished seventh in. 

The High Court later quashed all penalties in relation to the Pyromaniac case, but on this occasion it was decided that a judicial review would not take place so the findings of the appeal still stand and Martin will not be allowed to train for three months. It is not yet known whether somebody else will take over at the trainer's base while he is suspended. 

Firstman was the third Martin-trained winner in four years to fail a drugs test. The trainer has won five Grade 1s to his name as well as a whole host of the biggest handicaps, including four Galway Hurdles, a County Hurdle and a Coral Cup. 

Last week, Martin sent out Zanndabad to finish third in the Chester Cup, while Alphonse Le Grande led home stablemate Hamsiyann in a 1-2 for the stable in the Chester Plate. 

Read these next:

Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Tony Martin to lose licence for three months from May after breaking anti-doping rules 

'He was an absolute star and I loved him' - Paul Carberry hails Harchibald following death of star hurdler 

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