PHILIP Enright and Frank Berry have paid tribute to Robert Tyner who has announced his intention to wind down his Kinsale, Co Cork, training operation over the summer.

Aged 60, Tyner and his wife Mary have been training successfully for over 30 years but have decided to retire from the business due to staffing problems and rising costs. Only 13 trainers bettered their score of 18 winners in the most recent jumps season. They also had five point-to-point winners.

Speaking at Tipperary Racecourse on Thursday night, where he rode a winner for the Tyners, stable jockey Philip Enright said: “The news has come as a shock to everyone, myself included.

“We won the Pierse Hurdle together at Leopardstown (Spring The Que, 2007) and we had some good handicap chase winners there as well. Robert and Mary are unbelievable trainers, very astute. He will be a big loss to the industry.”

Frank Berry, racing manager to J.P. McManus, who was one of Tyner’s patrons, said: “Robert is a lovely man to deal with and very shrewd. We had some nice luck with him over the years. We’re still breeding from some of the mares he trained for us. He knows his horses inside out and did well with what he had.”

€5,000 fine

Tyner was this week fined €5,000 by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board following a positive post-race drugs test returned by a winner he trained last July in Limerick.

After the mare Blustery won a handicap chase on July 10th, she tested positive for dexamethasone, a corticosteroid with anti-inflammatory properties used to treat a variety of conditions in horses.

Tyner told the Referrals Committee that a veterinary surgeon had left the medicine at his yard to be given to another horse. Tyner said he took the decision to administer the medicine to Blustery himself when she developed a skin rash. He said he did not realise that administering a medicine into a vein should only be carried out by a trained veterinary surgeon.

The Referrals Committee, consisting of Peter Allen, Nick Wachman and Anthony Byrne, took “an extremely serious view” of Tyner’s actions which they said “borders on recklessness in some people’s minds”.