AN attempt to remove chairman Brian Polly as chairman of the Association of Irish Racehorse Owners this week was stopped by a last-minute solicitor’s letter.

The association has been in disarray for over a year due to ongoing disagreements between Polly and most of the directors. The row dates back to August 2019 when Polly lost out to director Caren Walsh for the position of owners’ representative on the board of Horse Racing Ireland. Polly claims the election was unfair, a charge which the directors refute.

With no resolution in sight, and following further acrimonious exchanges between the chairman and other AIRO officials, the association’s vice-chairman David Hyland called a directors’ meeting for last Tuesday evening, to be held online.

Top of the agenda was a motion to suspend Polly’s membership but the meeting was postponed shortly before it was due to start when the directors received a letter from Polly’s solicitor threatening to seek a High Court injunction if it went ahead.

Hyland told The Irish Field: “I postponed the meeting as it was too late to get legal advice on the evening and I don’t want to waste members’ funds in the courts, but I fully intend to go ahead with the meeting once we have taken appropriate advice.”

One pressing matter for the association is the appointment of an office manager, following the resignation of Aiden Burns who served for 18 years. Polly says this process has been flawed, with one candidate allowed to put their name forward after the closing date.

Hyland says this is inaccurate and alleges Polly was “irresponsible and unlawful” in publishing the name of the candidate in a letter which he circulated to Horse Racing Ireland chief executive Brian Kavanagh.

Determined

With Polly seemingly determined to stay in office, and with further legal action possible, AIRO members will be keen to see the association attain limited liability status, thus protecting them from exposure to legal costs. Hyland says he has put a lot of work into completing this task. Polly, through his solicitor, has raised concerns over the formation of the new entity.

The change in structure was prompted by a legal dispute in 2019 which cost the AIRO over €100,000.

At that time the AIRO council amended the association’s rules around the way in which the association puts forward a candidate to represent owners on the board of Horse Racing Ireland.

AIRO director James Gough held that HRI board seat and he opposed the rule change when it became clear he was unlikely to be reappointed under the new system. Gough sought a High Court injunction at the time, which the AIRO contested. Gough was successful in gaining the injunction and, while he ultimately was unable to win re-election to the HRI board, all legal costs were awarded against the AIRO.

Asked for a comment yesterday, Polly said there were “many factors that have contributed to my dissatisfaction as to how the association has been and is being run”. He said he would “continue to vigorously represent” smaller owners in Irish racing “to the best of my ability.”