The Appeals Body (Division Two) N.B. Wachman (in the Chair), Martin P. O’Donnell and John Murphy met in the Stewards Room, Leopardstown Racecourse, Dublin 18 on Thursday, 9th June 2016 to consider the appeal of D.E. Mullins against the decision of the Stewards at Ballinrobe on 30th May 2016. On the day he was found to be in breach of Rule 208 for failing to comply with the starter’s instructions.

His grounds of appeal were that he was not in breach of Rule 208.

Evidence was heard from D.E. Mullins and from Joe Banahan, Turf Club starter. The Appeals Body also reviewed a film of the start and an audio of the starter’s instructions.

In his evidence D.E. Mullins said he was doing his best to comply with the starters instructions but felt that the pressure to keep moving forward had come from some of the other riders. He added that in his opinion the starter’s instructions of “come to a standstill” could have been interpreted by some of the riders as “steady up”. D.E. Mullins accepted that after the initial false start he had turned his mount to face the starter without going behind the marker poles despite having being instructed to do so by the starter.

In his evidence Joe Banahan outlined the circumstances leading up to the false start and the difficulty he had trying to get the riders to comply with his instructions.

Having considered the evidence, the Appeals Body found that D.E. Mullins was in breach of Rule 208(v) (in that he had failed to comply with the instructions of the starter) and they therefore dismissed his appeal and ordered that he forfeit his deposit.

The case was presented by Paul Murtagh, Stewards Secretary.