IT COULD have come straight from the pages of a Dick Francis thriller — the ex-model who became a trainer, then fell out with the rich football agent who backed her and gave one of his horses an illegal drug when it was switched to another yard. Yesterday, Vicky Haigh paid for her deeds with fines totalling £3,500.
The Jockey Club’s disciplinary panel took a dim view of Haigh administering Bute to the two-year-old filly, Ooh Aah Camara, owned by her landlord Willie McKay, on the day it left their Yorkshire yard. They fined Haigh £2,500 for using the drug without justification and a further £1,000 for not informing the filly’s new trainer, Richard Guest.
Guest was fined £700, the minimum applicable for running a horse with Bute in its system, but the panel confirmed that the misdemeanours of Haigh, under the umbrella rule of “prejudicing the integrity of horse racing”, were unique.
Paul Struthers, the Jockey Club’s public relations officer, said: “There were no precedents for these breaches but they will not jeopardise Miss Haigh receiving her licence to train again. At present she is not licensed, as part of her dispute with Mr McKay involves ownership of starting stalls, which are mandatory equipment.”
The British challenge for the Champion Hurdle could be crystallised today after Howard Johnson changed his mind and declared Arcalis to run at Haydock Park. Among his six opponents are the Irish-trained Al Eile.
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In Ireland tomorrow, Central House, runs for the first time since losing a valuable race when Roger Loughran, his jockey, mistook the winning post. He will be ridden by Paul Carberry in the Normans Grove Chase at Fairyhouse.