Diamond Geezer
Gone But Not Forgotten
- Joined
- May 2, 2003
- Messages
- 13,884
Chris Cook, The Guardian
Graham Bradley is on his way back, it would seem. On Monday, he is one of those due in Newmarket for the first of three seminars aimed at preparing prospective trainers, as reported in this morning's Racing Post.
There is no guarantee that Bradley will be granted a licence, even if he completes the course, which costs each applicant more than £2,000. But the British Horseracing Authority created a difficult precedent for itself in 2010, when allowing him a one-race licence to ride in the Leger Legends charity race.
Since then, Bradley has been working for a couple of trainers in the Lambourn area and has been seen lugging saddles around on-course. He may argue that there is not a great deal of practical difference between the work he has been doing and the work he proposes to do as a trainer in his own name.
So there must be a chance that he will be granted a licence, despite the numerous points that could be counted against him, notably the five-year warning off order after he was found to have passed information for reward to Brian Wright, who was subsequently jailed for 30 years for drug smuggling.
In his autobiography, The Wayward Lad, Bradley devoted a chapter to his friendship with Wright and told the tale of how he tried to get the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup abandoned because the ground had turned against the horse Wright had backed (not the same horse that Bradley was due to ride). When hauled before racing's rulers of the time to explain the story, Bradley said it wasn't really true.
So he might be the sort of man who tries to get major races called off to suit the betting activities of a friend. Or he might be the sort of man who tries to sell books by inventing such a story.
Either way, a sport's ruling body only creates trouble for itself by allowing such people to keep coming back. I'd have thought Bradley could have been warned off without limit of time for his association with Wright but even under the stricter regime that prevails now, the BHA remains unwilling to consider giving life bans to anyone. They would rather give time-limited bans while maintaining the right to deny licence applications after those bans expire, so that any ban might become a de facto life ban.
Their fear is that life bans, announced as such, could be challenged in court and perhaps struck down if found to be disproportionate, which would be an expensive and embarrassing setback for the BHA. But courts are slow to intervene in areas governed by sports bodies and I'd have thought that the occasional life ban would have an excellent chance of standing up, so long as due process had been observed.
Horse racing depends for its income on the sustained goodwill of racegoers and punters, which can easily be damaged by evidence of corruption. For the sake of everyone working in the sport, the BHA should be free to impose life bans in suitable cases, leaving no one in any doubt about the risk a person runs by playing fast and loose with the rules.
Bradley has to earn a crust somehow. He is very personable and has many fans, some of whom will argue that he has served his time. But he has been the author of his own misfortune and he has no right to expect another licence from racing's rulers, with the associated implication that past sins have been forgotten.
Graham Bradley is on his way back, it would seem. On Monday, he is one of those due in Newmarket for the first of three seminars aimed at preparing prospective trainers, as reported in this morning's Racing Post.
There is no guarantee that Bradley will be granted a licence, even if he completes the course, which costs each applicant more than £2,000. But the British Horseracing Authority created a difficult precedent for itself in 2010, when allowing him a one-race licence to ride in the Leger Legends charity race.
Since then, Bradley has been working for a couple of trainers in the Lambourn area and has been seen lugging saddles around on-course. He may argue that there is not a great deal of practical difference between the work he has been doing and the work he proposes to do as a trainer in his own name.
So there must be a chance that he will be granted a licence, despite the numerous points that could be counted against him, notably the five-year warning off order after he was found to have passed information for reward to Brian Wright, who was subsequently jailed for 30 years for drug smuggling.
In his autobiography, The Wayward Lad, Bradley devoted a chapter to his friendship with Wright and told the tale of how he tried to get the 1987 Cheltenham Gold Cup abandoned because the ground had turned against the horse Wright had backed (not the same horse that Bradley was due to ride). When hauled before racing's rulers of the time to explain the story, Bradley said it wasn't really true.
So he might be the sort of man who tries to get major races called off to suit the betting activities of a friend. Or he might be the sort of man who tries to sell books by inventing such a story.
Either way, a sport's ruling body only creates trouble for itself by allowing such people to keep coming back. I'd have thought Bradley could have been warned off without limit of time for his association with Wright but even under the stricter regime that prevails now, the BHA remains unwilling to consider giving life bans to anyone. They would rather give time-limited bans while maintaining the right to deny licence applications after those bans expire, so that any ban might become a de facto life ban.
Their fear is that life bans, announced as such, could be challenged in court and perhaps struck down if found to be disproportionate, which would be an expensive and embarrassing setback for the BHA. But courts are slow to intervene in areas governed by sports bodies and I'd have thought that the occasional life ban would have an excellent chance of standing up, so long as due process had been observed.
Horse racing depends for its income on the sustained goodwill of racegoers and punters, which can easily be damaged by evidence of corruption. For the sake of everyone working in the sport, the BHA should be free to impose life bans in suitable cases, leaving no one in any doubt about the risk a person runs by playing fast and loose with the rules.
Bradley has to earn a crust somehow. He is very personable and has many fans, some of whom will argue that he has served his time. But he has been the author of his own misfortune and he has no right to expect another licence from racing's rulers, with the associated implication that past sins have been forgotten.
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