Billionaire entrepreneur Luke Comer’s appeal against a three-year suspension of his racehorse training licence by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) has been unsuccessful. The imposed ban is due to start on 15th July.
The IHRB confirmed the judgement by the three-member appeal body presided over by Justice Peter Kelly in their declaration on Thursday evening.
Comer, a Monaco resident, had challenged several penalties issued last September due to the largest doping scandal in the history of Irish horse racing.
Comer’s horse He Knows No Fear tested positive for an anabolic steroid post a Leopardstown race in October 2021. This prompted an impromptu IHRB inspection of his property close to Kilternan, Co Dublin, where twelve additional horses were found to be positive for the anabolic steroids methandienone and methlylestosterone.
According to the IHRB, the violations of the drug rules were “unprecedented.”
A case review panel was unable to ascertain how the drugs were administered to the horses and found no proof of intentional doping. Even so, as the licence holder, Comer was held accountable, despite his claim that he only spends a quarter of the year in Ireland.
Comer was also penalised over €85,000 in fines and directed to cover the IHRB’s legal expenses of €775,000. Despite enduring a three-day hearing last month, he couldn’t overturn the ban he staunchly denies.
The IHRB had submitted its own appeal against what they perceived as the soft penalties from the original referral committee, but this too was rejected.
The appeal body’s detailed verdict statement illustrates a limited success for Comer regarding rule violations that led to some of the fines. Similarly, in terms of costs, Comer had minor victories. The body concluded that his successful areas only consumed a minor portion of the appeal time, allowing for a generous 15% allowance.
It also noted that Comer had won against the IHRB’s leniency appeal; however, it used up barely any time and the potential cost award would be trivial in the wider context.
The appeal body tentatively opined that justice would be served by Comer settling 75% of the appeal costs to the IHRB.
Comer will be fielding three racers for the kick-off of the Derby Festival at Curragh on Friday evening. Following the initial rulings in September, he promised, “I will leverage all my resources to ensure anyone who tarnishes my reputation faces consequences. I am entirely innocent, without a doubt. Never in my life have I been more certain.”