Ruby Walsh: IHRB clearly got it right with their Covid-19 protocols

It has happened to me on three mornings since last June, waking to the realisation that I had forgotten to open the IHRB app and tick the boxes

It is hardly the crime of the century but, as a licence holder with the IHRB, Jessica Harrington either had to go directly from home or stay within the designated bubble to go racing at the time

When I read about the sanctions handed out by the Referrals Committee of the IHRB to Jessica Harrington last Monday for her breaches of Covid protocols, which the IRHB set in line with the then government guidelines surrounding foreign travel, I thought ‘fair enough’.

Every other person who had travelled to either Cheltenham or Aintree had to follow the green bubble regulations. It was required to ensure such a large travelling party could enter the UK and come back to Ireland whilst using the quarantine protocols set for elite sportspeople. None of it straightforward when put into practice but a necessary obligation during a national level five Covid lockdown.