HRA allows Berry to continue training

BRITAIN'S racing regulators have stressed that the decision to allow Alan Berry to continue to train despite being charged as part of a police investigation into alleged race-fixing should not be taken as a precedent.

After a hearing, the Horseracing Regulatory Authority has permitted Berry to keep on sending out runners from his Lancashire base.

The HRA’s special panel decided a ban would be “disproportionate” given that a trial in the case is unlikely to begin before spring 2007.

Berry was one of 11 people – four of whom are licensed by the HRA – charged by the City Of London Police on Monday after a two-year investigation which became public in September 2004.

The other three – six-times champion jockey Kieren Fallon and weighing room colleagues Darren Williams and Fergal Lynch – will appear at the HRA‘s Shaftesbury Avenue headquarters on Friday.

They were banned from taking any rides in Britain following the charges and like Berry, they will be given a chance to argue their case for continuing their profession.

Sir Michael Connell, who chaired the special three-man panel, said: “The charge (against Berry), if proved, would strike at the heart of racing; suggesting as it does that a trainer has improperly manipulated the outcome of a race.

“We observe, however, that the charge, albeit of conspiracy, relates to one race only.

“This is in contrast to the other charges made against other people yesterday.”