TRAINER Ado McGuinness has been given a suspended two-year disqualification by the Turf Club in the wake of a court appearance last year relating to the possession of unauthorised animal remedies.

McGuinness was fined a total of €2,500 at Swords District Court in Dublin in February 2016 for possessing four animal remedies without authorisation and two remedies without a prescription from a veterinary surgeon.

The case against McGuinness, whose stables are in Lusk, had been brought by the Department of Agriculture, following a visit by its officers to the yard in June 2014. In passing sentence, the court had accepted an argument that the offences were “at the lower end” of the scale.

McGuinness, who was ordered to pay Turf Club costs of €1,000, stressed none of the medications were performance enhancing and said: “I’m just relieved it’s all over. This is something which happened three years ago and I’m glad it’s been brought to a close. I just want to now carry on trying to train as many winners as possible.”

The Turf Club’s Referrals Committee imposed the suspended ban on the condition McGuinness does not breach similar rules again, saying it should be noted “that if similar facts arise in the future, it is highly unlikely that a suspended penalty would arise”.

OWNER DISQUALIFIED

In a separate case this week, the Turf Club banned owner Pat Coffey for two years while restricted trainer James Coyle was given a one-year suspended ban.

An inspection of Coyle’s yard in Navan in June revealed that four horses returned in training were not on the premises and were instead stabled and trained by Coffey in Slane. In the absence of Coffey, and having had the full co-operation of Coyle, the Referrals Committee found that Coffey “was the instigator of what occured which is why he was being convicted of the more serious rule breaches”.