The following note should be read by all media intending to base themselves at BHA Head Office for the Mahmood Al Zarooni hearing on today.
The hearing will commence at 2:30pm at 75 High Holborn, London, WC1V 6LS. The hearing will not be open to the media. It is impossible for us to specify when the attendees to the hearing will be arriving at the building.
Camera crews are informed that there can be no waiting or filming in the building lobby. All media wishing to wait for arrival of the hearing’s attendees must wait on the pavement outside. There is not a great deal of room, but please do not obstruct the doors of the building and ensure there is room on the pavement for pedestrians.
From 2pm onwards the first floor meeting rooms of 75 High Holborn will be opened for media to use as a base for the afternoon, with wireless internet access. Please note no filming is permitted within the building except at the allocated press briefing. Please remain in the meeting rooms and not in the reception area.
There is a possibility that the hearing will conclude this afternoon and a decision and penalty obtained. If this is the case the BHA will publish the result, and then at the earliest opportunity hold two separate press briefings, as follows.
The first of these briefings will be for broadcast media only. The briefing will begin with an introductory note from Paul Bittar followed by the opportunity for a Q&A. Please note that we will not be able to carry out individual broadcast interviews and as such all broadcast footage must be ascertained from this briefing.
The second briefing is then open to all media and will follow immediately after the broadcast media. However, filming will not be permitted in this briefing.
Attending both briefings will be:
- Paul Bittar (Chief Executive, BHA)
- Jamie Stier (Director of Raceday Operations and Regulation, BHA)
- Adam Brickell (Director of Integrity, Legal and Risk, BHA)
- Simon Crisford (Racing Manager, Godolphin)
An official statement will also be published, this will be distributed to all media present at the building before the start of the first briefing. It will be published to wider media after the second briefing has begun.
If the hearing does not conclude on the day then this process will be repeated but at a date when the result and penalty will be published. BHA will give media a guideline as to when this date is expected to be, but could be the following day.
All media enquiries should be directed to Robin Mounsey (details as below) but only if the issue is not covered directly by the above note. We request that you do not call throughout the day requesting updates on timing as it will be impossible to provide any form of update once the hearing is in progress. We will inform the media the moment the hearing has concluded and a result can be expected.
It is possible that media will be required to leave the building at 7:15pm owing to our tenancy agreement, and as such media should locate an alternative venue from which to work at this time. We apologise for this, but it is a legal requirement.
