The BHA has today published a full statement regarding the circumstances that led to the need for a rehearing of the Jim Best and Paul Gilligan cases, and a review of seven other cases heard by panels chaired by Mr Lohn since late 2013. The statement can be found here.

Following the Disciplinary Panel’s recent decision to find Jim Best in breach of two counts of Rule C(45) and one count of A(30), and with the deadline for any appeal now expired, the BHA today met its commitment to be fully open and transparent about the circumstances which led to an appearance of bias in a small number of cases where Matthew Lohn chaired the Disciplinary Panel.

Nick Rust, Chief Executive of the BHA, said:

“The BHA acted in good faith, but we made an error of judgment in not disclosing Mr Lohn’s other work on medical matters.

“While it is incumbent on all Panel members to declare ‘any interest’ when provisionally selected for a Disciplinary Panel, in hindsight the BHA should have disclosed the fact that it paid Mr Lohn to give advice on issues unrelated to his role as a member of the Disciplinary Panel.

“We’ve made good progress in resolving cases affected by a possible appearance of bias. With the Disciplinary Panel’s recent decision to find Paul Gilligan in breach we now have just three of the nine cases left to resolve.

“We have learned important lessons and my priority now is to complete the implementation of the recommendations from this year’s Christopher Quinlan QC and Integrity reviews to ensure that racing and its participants can have confidence in our handling of disciplinary cases, now and in the future.”