GALWAY trainer Pat Kelly, who masterminded Cheltenham Festival success with Mall Dini and Presenting Percy 10 years ago, is facing a suspension of his licence.

On Tuesday the Referrals Committee heard that Kelly has "failed to engage with or reply to any correspondence" from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board since an inspection of his yard in January.

The IHRB says that the inspection team noted that two horses were returned in Kelly’s care but were not identified at his yard, while 10 horses who were stabled there were not registered as being in training.

Furthermore, the passports for 17 horses recorded in Kelly’s care were not available for inspection and were not subsequently made available for inspection. It was also noted that the Medicines Register was incomplete.

After confirming the imposition of fines totalling around €2,500, Mr Justice Frank Clarke, chair of the Referrals Committee, said: “This panel takes a very serious view of the complete failure, on the part of the trainer concerned, to engage with the IHRB, there is no reason to believe that any of these, not insignificant breaches, have been remedied in the intervening period.

"It would have been open to Mr Kelly to either write to the IHRB or answer calls from the IHRB or indeed to attend before this panel today and explain matters.

"But in the light of the fact that there is a significant set of breaches, and no evidence that any of them have been attended to, the panel proposes to impose a suspension of Mr Kelly's licence with effect from seven days from today's date, with the caveat that, in the event that Mr Kelly, within that seven days, satisfactorily engages with the IHRB and satisfies the IHRB that the breaches have either been remedied or in the reasonable course of being remedied, then that suspension will not come into force.”

Based in Athenry, Kelly has not had a runner under rules since December 29th.