NEWRY, Co Down, trainer Liam Lennon was fined £5,000 this week by the British Horseracing Authority [BHA] after being found guilty of breaching horse welfare rules.

The case dates back to February 2021 when Lennon left two unnamed horses overnight in a horsebox at Ayr Racecourse.

The trainer had brought three runners to Ayr on the same day and they were stabled in the racecourse stables but the unnamed horses were due to be collected by a Northumberland permit-holder named Harry Burns.

When Burns informed Lennon that he could not collect the horses at Ayr as arranged, Lennon felt he had no option but to leave them in the horsebox overnight. This explanation was disputed by the BHA’s counsel who said it differed from evidence given by Burns and Lennon at a stewards’ inquiry at the racecourse.

A three-person independent panel found Lennon guilty of three charges. He was fined £2,500 for breaching rules on welfare, £650 for taking unvaccinated horses on to racecourse property and £1,850 for failing to cooperate with the BHA in its investigation.

Lennon was champion point-to-point rider in the northern region on least three occasions between 1999 and 2002. As a trainer he is is best known for his handling of Tammys Hill, winner of the Foxhunter Chase at the 2014 Cheltenham Festival.