Irish court blocks 'dead' horse from running at Naas on Saturday

The Tartan Spartan will not be able to run at Naas on Saturday after Andrew Hughes, his former trainer and manager of Thistle Bloodstock, won a temporary injunction in the High Court on Friday.

Thistle Bloodstock bred and was up until recently the registered owner of The Tartan Spartan, but Hughes said in his affidavit that he understood the horse had been put down as he had given the horse to Jim Derwin to euthanise last year after the seven-year-old had broken down.

According to a report in the Irish Times, Hughes said he only learned the horse was still alive when he saw it entered to run at Naas.

He sought an injunction against Derwin, the horse's trainer Philip Fenton and the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. The injunction was granted by Mr Justice Mark Heslin following a one side-only represented application by William Reidy BL, for Thistle Bloodstock.

The court was told that ownership had never changed and Hughes still had the horse’s passport, and had assumed The Tartan Spartan had been euthanised because he had been deemed "beyond repair".

There was correspondence with the defendants saying legal action would be brought if no word was received back to say the horse would not run.

The IHRB has said it could not prevent it racing without a court order and there was no response from the other two defendants. The case could return next week.

Get exclusive insight from the track and live tipping with Raceday Live - our up-to-the-minute service on racingpost.com and the Racing Post mobile app