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Best hits out after BHA ban on his self-certs
By Graham Green 7:05AM 24 SEP 2014
JIM BEST has claimed he will be forced to deceive the betting public by saddling horses he does not want to run after being excluded by the BHA, along with Gay Kelleway, from the self-certification process for the rest of the year.
Best, who was embroiled in controversy this month when Saint Helena landed a gamble at Southwell under Tony McCoy - whose original mount Into The Wind was withdrawn after a ground change - was among 14 trainers warned in May they risked losing the ability to self-certify unless their percentage of non-runners fell across the three months to the end of August.
The East Sussex trainer was indignant on Tuesday after being informed by BHA director of racing Ruth Quinn that if he wants to withdraw a horse on veterinary grounds he will now have to get the form signed by a vet and that failure to do so will result in a fine.
Best, who argues the majority of his self-certificates are for horses he feels would not do themselves justice after failing to eat their overnight feed, says he is not prepared to pay the vet fees.
He said: "By stopping me and my brother Tom self-certifying the only people to suffer will be the public and punters, because you'll basically be deceiving them. Ruth Quinn says I should call a vet out, but you can't do that at 4.30am or 5am when it would cost £200, and also our owners wouldn't allow it when we're professionals and know the horses best.
"We're only a small operation and can't afford a fine, so if we had an odds-on favourite we'd have to run it without punters knowing it hadn't eaten up overnight and without us having any confidence it could perform to its ability."
He added: "To us, this has come very close to the Saint Helena incident, but we feel they're two different issues because when we take a horse out because of ground, as with Into The Wind, that's not a self-certification, and we could do the same thing again next week.
"All I want to do is let the public understand that the only ones to lose out on this are some horses, because they probably shouldn't be running, and the betting public. If we have an odds-on favourite due to leave the yard at 5am and it has not eaten up, we wouldn't want to run it, but as we haven't got the ability to self-certify we'll be forced to run. That will be deceiving the public."
Saint Helena is the subject of a BHA investigation in the wake of her victory at Southwell after being backed from 6-1 to 11-10. The mare was making her handicap debut over hurdles, having failed to make the frame in seven previous starts since joining Best, and was originally due to be partnered by Rhys Flint, who at that point had not had a ride this season.
Quinn said: "Jim Best and Gay Kelleway were two of a small handful of trainers who had been operating with non-runner rates above the thresholds throughout 2013, and who were written to in May to inform them that, should their ratio of non-runners not drop below the threshold, their right to self-certify may be withdrawn for the remainder of 2014.
"Having reviewed their non-runner rates after the further three-month period, it has been determined they both continue to operate above the threshold levels. As such it is the BHA's view they are continuing to abuse the self-certification system and they should have this privilege withdrawn for the remainder of 2014.
"The thresholds have been set significantly higher than the average non-runner rate, and the vast majority of trainers are able to operate well below these thresholds, so in the view of the BHA there is no excuse to be producing non-runners at this rate."
She added: "The action taken is the result of an initiative by the BHA to regulate rules regarding non-runners on a more robust basis, as part of a wider focus on safeguarding field sizes and to protect the interests of the punter.
"The consequence for the trainers is that they must now operate in the same manner as all trainers would have done before the privilege of self-certification was introduced."
By Graham Green 7:05AM 24 SEP 2014
JIM BEST has claimed he will be forced to deceive the betting public by saddling horses he does not want to run after being excluded by the BHA, along with Gay Kelleway, from the self-certification process for the rest of the year.
Best, who was embroiled in controversy this month when Saint Helena landed a gamble at Southwell under Tony McCoy - whose original mount Into The Wind was withdrawn after a ground change - was among 14 trainers warned in May they risked losing the ability to self-certify unless their percentage of non-runners fell across the three months to the end of August.
The East Sussex trainer was indignant on Tuesday after being informed by BHA director of racing Ruth Quinn that if he wants to withdraw a horse on veterinary grounds he will now have to get the form signed by a vet and that failure to do so will result in a fine.
Best, who argues the majority of his self-certificates are for horses he feels would not do themselves justice after failing to eat their overnight feed, says he is not prepared to pay the vet fees.
He said: "By stopping me and my brother Tom self-certifying the only people to suffer will be the public and punters, because you'll basically be deceiving them. Ruth Quinn says I should call a vet out, but you can't do that at 4.30am or 5am when it would cost £200, and also our owners wouldn't allow it when we're professionals and know the horses best.
"We're only a small operation and can't afford a fine, so if we had an odds-on favourite we'd have to run it without punters knowing it hadn't eaten up overnight and without us having any confidence it could perform to its ability."
He added: "To us, this has come very close to the Saint Helena incident, but we feel they're two different issues because when we take a horse out because of ground, as with Into The Wind, that's not a self-certification, and we could do the same thing again next week.
"All I want to do is let the public understand that the only ones to lose out on this are some horses, because they probably shouldn't be running, and the betting public. If we have an odds-on favourite due to leave the yard at 5am and it has not eaten up, we wouldn't want to run it, but as we haven't got the ability to self-certify we'll be forced to run. That will be deceiving the public."
Saint Helena is the subject of a BHA investigation in the wake of her victory at Southwell after being backed from 6-1 to 11-10. The mare was making her handicap debut over hurdles, having failed to make the frame in seven previous starts since joining Best, and was originally due to be partnered by Rhys Flint, who at that point had not had a ride this season.
Quinn said: "Jim Best and Gay Kelleway were two of a small handful of trainers who had been operating with non-runner rates above the thresholds throughout 2013, and who were written to in May to inform them that, should their ratio of non-runners not drop below the threshold, their right to self-certify may be withdrawn for the remainder of 2014.
"Having reviewed their non-runner rates after the further three-month period, it has been determined they both continue to operate above the threshold levels. As such it is the BHA's view they are continuing to abuse the self-certification system and they should have this privilege withdrawn for the remainder of 2014.
"The thresholds have been set significantly higher than the average non-runner rate, and the vast majority of trainers are able to operate well below these thresholds, so in the view of the BHA there is no excuse to be producing non-runners at this rate."
She added: "The action taken is the result of an initiative by the BHA to regulate rules regarding non-runners on a more robust basis, as part of a wider focus on safeguarding field sizes and to protect the interests of the punter.
"The consequence for the trainers is that they must now operate in the same manner as all trainers would have done before the privilege of self-certification was introduced."
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Replies: 54
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Worrying that the welfare of the horse is not worth £200. Be moaning next when Animal Aid complain about sick horses running because a trainer was not prepared to pay a vet to look at it.
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Welfare of Animals should always come first the running of horses who haven't eaten up probably
goes on already,isn't there an on course vet who checks if an animal is fit to run?.. |
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jim best and in the publics interest dont go together
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jim best's whine doesn't impress me at all...well done to the BHA and no doubt if he does run a duff odds on shot they'll be down on him like the proverbial ton of bricks.
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Nothing to stop him informing the public if a horse has not eaten up to avoid the punters losing out. It's nice to see that we are in his thoughts.
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i bet Jim lies awake in bed at night worrying about us poor punters, desperate not to deceive us....that ****ing statement is deceiving us, cos it's just more Jim Best bullsh!t...would love to see them get warned off some day soon
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rewe It is not the trainer who pays the £200 it's the owner
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Certain gambling stables often have this problem on the day of the race. We all know who they are.
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What a shame. Everyone coped before self-certs, so they'll just have to do it again.
In any event, I seem to recall a number of his recent non-runners have been declared late morning, so the '4.30-5am' line wouldn't seem to have much substance to it. |
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So in order to avoid paying a £200 vets bill, he'll run the horse anyway, which will cost more than £200 for the jockey fee and the travel costs.
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Not sure whether it was Jim Best talking about deceiving the public or a BHA representative mentioning protecting the interests of the punter that made me cough on my cornflakes.
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I was under the impression that the 'owner' paid the vets bills anyway - not the trainer.
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Very good point TheAnorak!
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You could not make it up.
A verminous dog who should not hold a Training Licence. |
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'Not eaten up' walos in 99% of cases. No racing yard ever has a vet out at 5.30 to do a cert. stop taking everyone for idiots.
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The badly named "Best" represents all that is wrong with racing. A horrible individual.
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I've often wondered if jockeys/trainers have to take an acting course. You see them being interviewed and 'pure as the driven snow' springs to mind. I remember a jockey riding over here who used to get a guy I know to put bets on for him, probably 2/3 a week. Sometimes these were bets on a horse he was riding against in a race. This guy was thought of as 'one of the nicest in the weighing room' etc etc and everyone was always delighted for him when he won a big one. You then realise how a lot of these fellas are able to set themselves up as trainers and get horses from the Rancid one to train.
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its simple the only people who keep the game going ANY GAME are the paying public
but in horse racing the public are treated like mugs tell that to Jim.. Or the BHB . |
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So these horses"that shouldn`t be running"can now have the ar@e layed out of them run like pigs and he has a ready excuse
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Or better yet, he comes on RUK, telling the world that it hasn't eaten up, but he isn't allowed to withdraw it...... 4/6 shot goes 2/1 and gags up with all the stable in clover. Basically it's a cheats charter.
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Apart from the issue of the self certs and the fact the yard land a good few gambles,could any of you tell me from personal experience,not just jumping on the bandwagon,that the yard as as low as many of you think
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The whole tenor of Best's comments are that we should somehow feel sorry for him because he has been singled out for unfavourable treatment from the BHA.
From a man who clearly doesn't have any regard for punters (not that I expect any trainer to by the way) if he's looking for a positive response he's either delusional or is suffering from an extreme case of chutzpah. My money is on the latter. |
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hasnt been singled out, got Gay with him!
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Metaphorically not literally Delta.
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Doesn't want the owner to pay £200 for a vet but happy for him to put diesel in the horse box to get to the track and pay a jockey to ride and for racing shoes and anything else that a day at the races brings.WAC of a man thick as pig5hit imho
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Gay's was because of a doping scare, about the one thing Best hasn't been accused of.
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with the amount of not eating up self certs he has dished out. maybe he needs to change his feed, the horses clearly dont like it.
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TRD I've no idea whether his yard / him are 'particularly bad' but I do know the machinations around self certs and he has taken the pss and has now had the option withdrawn. No feasible argument for having way more SC particularly for guff like 'not eating up' than any other trainer.
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perhaps he could have a self cert for couldnt get on at the price, market not in their favour, false overnight gamble, false morning gamble,just on confuse the public, at least we would know where we are.
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the guys a rogue
exploiting the system to the hilt he does not care for punters only people who can profit from this is the trainer and people in the know with him how can you know the night before its due to race the following day with this stable,reading form on the horse is not the biggest factor unfortunately... and in regards to the bha -laughable there should not be loopholes there for trainers to exploit them Prescott stable is similar-forget the bare form |
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totally agree with dealers comment...
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Don't all trainers have to flaunt the rules,especially those with inferior horses.
Watch the last run of Beltor,not off a yard till today and in it goes |
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the man's a joke and been put in hiS place by the smurf today
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if i had a jumper would send it to him straight away looks like he does a job for hes owners good luck to any trainer who gets one over the bookies
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I would just put "The Screens " around the coorked bstd.
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disagree
getting one over punters as well we all know in handicaps what goes on.... as a punter most of the time we have to back on form and stats once it goes beyond that we are in real trouble and jockeys getting done for fiddling will never help the game |
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When I lived in a London a guy came to the house to do some work,he asked me what I did for a living,I told him I backed horses,I have just bought a horse he replied,well a leg in one and it's running the next day at Kempton. He went on to tell me Jim Best bought the syndicate a horse for 5k at Ascot sales,when Best got the horse home he rang them to say the horse was not fit despite running recently.
A few weeks later Best rang them to say the horse was now much fitter and ready to run. The guy told me the horse was fancied and to have a look at it. When he left I looked up the horse it had run something like 41 times and won one race,I thought oh well that's 5k the syndicate had done. The next day I watched the horse hack up at Kempton at 14/1,it won about another 4-5 races for them and the syndicate never had a bad word to say about the yard |
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i hope he made enough off the gamble because it looks like its going to be a long ,long while before he can pull the stunt again , now lets hope the bha catch on to the rest of them using the trick
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that’s OK for them OWNERS
i know where your coming from trd but i am looking at normal everyday punters i just avoid his runners full stop,then i dont get stung unfortunately not everybody can go out and buy a horse |