Martin Dwyer Hearing Date Confirmed
Horse racing fans – if you have been checking out our site lately – you will know that we have been following the Martin Dwyer story with interest, as we see whether he will be able to clear his name and get rid of his ban. It has been announced that the British Horse Racing Authority has confirmed that the hearing will take place on October 9th! The disciplinary panel will be the ones at the hearing and the powers that be will be: Tim Charlton QC, Hopper Cavendish and Didi Powles. All of the necessary paperwork has been sent from the Royal Western India Turf Club so everything is now in place for Martin Dwyer to appeal to the panel once again.
Those of you who aren’t familiar with the background of the case will be interested to know that Martin Dwyer was originally given a 56 day global suspension as it was deemed that he didn’t race to the best of his ability at the Pune Racecourse in India where he came in third on Ice Age and was the firm favorite. He was accused of preventing the filly on purpose from getting the best possible position to win the race which caused her simply to run off a straight line.
Ice Age had a burst blood vessel and due to this Martin Dwyer stated that she had wandered around “like she was drunk”. Horse Racing fans or “punters” were infuriated and Dwyer had to make a quick exit as he felt they could cause him an injury or attack him as they were so visibly angry at him. After the original ban he had decided to appeal – but he didn’t get the desired outcome and officials decided to increase his ban to 8 months!
Martin Dwyer has been very vocal about his innocence and went onto BBC Radio 5 Live and said:
“I’m not guilty of what they’ve found me guilty of. When they increased it to eight months, it’s just added more worry, more pressure.
He had stated that Horse Racing fans had been showing him some great support and that they understood that some times these things happen and it isn’t always the fault of the jockey. He went on to say:
“The horse was running around underneath me, acting peculiar. She’d have won the race if she’d run in a straight line, and she didn’t. Three strides after the winning post, I’ve got down off her and she’s bled. For me that clearly tells you she had a problem during the race, and that explains everything.”
As you can see Dwyer seems to be pretty cut up about the whole situation and will go to whatever lengths necessary to prove his innocence. Let’s see how things play out for him over the next couple of weeks.
