Philip Byrnes Referral Hearing Observations After seven months of investigations the eagerly anticipated Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) Referral Hearing into the controversial departure of jockey Philip Byrnes from his mount Redwood Queen at the final hurdle in a race at Wexford in May was heard last week. Cases like this are always going to be extremely difficult for the prosecution to win. 'Balance of probabilities' is not going to be an adequate measure for the judging panel when the charge is as serious as the IHRB's allegation that Byrnes jumped off the horse deliberately. The IHRB case needs to be proved 'beyond any reasonable doubt' as the potential sanction the jockey faces here, if he is found guilty, could be career ending. Questionable Evidence Presentation For that reason, I was puzzled by two main aspects of the evidence the IHRB furnished to support their argument that Byrnes had deliberately jumped from his mount at the final hurdle in the Claiming Race at Wexford. First of all, the IHRB (including its predecessor the Turf Club) has a long history of employing ex-jockeys to fill a variety of roles in their organisation. There are currently close to a dozen former riders among their ranks, yet the IHRB only called on one of them to give evidence to support their allegation that Byrnes deliberately jumped off the horse. Leighton Aspell was the only former jockey in the employment of the IHRB to speak at the Hearing, where he said regarding Byrnes' unseat that he could "only view it as a deliberate act." A forthright statement from Aspell, but it begs the question, is he the only one of the former jockeys working at the IHRB that holds this opinion? Article highlights: The IHRB presented only one ex-jockey witness despite employing nearly a dozen former riders who could have provided expert opinions. Betting information presented at the hearing was weak, with no evidence directly linking the Byrnes family to suspicious betting patterns. The stewards at Wexford on race day had originally reviewed the incident and "took no further action," finding no wrongdoing. Prize money in Irish racing will increase by 6% (€4.2 million) in 2026, but questions remain about its distribution. We know from the original inquiry held on the day at Wexford that former top point-to-point rider Colman Sweeney (stipendiary steward) and former professional jockey Tom Rudd (chairman of the stewards panel on the day) were not convinced that Philip Byrnes had done anything wrong. "The Raceday Stewards reviewed the unseating of P. Byrnes, rider of Redwood Queen, at the last hurdle when leading. Having viewed the recording of the race and considered the matter, the Raceday Stewards took no further action." But what about some of the other ex-jockeys working for the IHRB? Former riders like Lorcan Wyer, Brendan Sheridan, Paul Moloney and Pat Malone are all vastly experienced former National Hunt jockeys whose opinions would certainly be worth hearing. They must all have some opinions on the incident, but none were called to give evidence at the Hearing. Their views as to whether or not Philip Byrnes' unseat was a deliberate act could have added serious weight to the IHRB's argument, assuming their opinions align with those of Aspell. Philip Byrnes' defence team called two expert witnesses to back up his version of events, yet the IHRB could only muster one witness with race riding experience to counter that argument. Weak Betting Evidence Secondly, the betting information on the race that was presented at the Hearing was particularly weak and rather meaningless. If the IHRB wanted to delve into the betting patterns on the race they needed to present evidence that actually linked bets directly to Philip Byrnes, his father Charles who trained Redwood Queen or his brother Cathal who owned the mare. If the IHRB had been able to show that one or more members of the Byrnes family had profited from Philip's exit at the last hurdle it would have changed the entire complexion of the incident and supported their allegation, but the IHRB didn't present a single scrap of evidence to support that theory. All they basically did was get a computer scientist to tell the Hearing what we already knew, that Redwood Queen drifted alarmingly in the betting while there was strong support for the eventual winner. And this evidence wasn't even presented in person, it was done via a video link. If the IHRB were to accuse every rider that gets beaten on a horse which drifts in the betting of not trying there would hardly be enough jockeys left to go around. It is seven years since the Viking Hoard case at Tramore, where crucial betting data was not available to pinpoint the perpetrators of that outrageous doping incident and as a consequence no one was ever found guilty of nobbling the horse. That case was expected to be a watershed moment for the Regulator with sweeping changes as to how the sport is policed. Limited Progress in Racing Regulation All these years later and the authorities still apparently cannot track down basic information that links bets to the people that placed them. If there is no evidence that Philip Byrnes or someone close to him was set to profit from Redwood Queen not winning, it is extremely difficult to come to the conclusion that he risked life and limb by jumping off the horse deliberately. The IHRB would have been acutely aware of the storm of bad publicity the sport received in the wake of Philip Byrnes' unseat and the IHRB presumably decided that it needed to be seen to be doing something, even if that something was not likely to result in any sanction against the rider. I get the impression that this exercise had as much to do with PR as it had anything else. 2026 Prize Money Boost Switching to a different topic, Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) revealed their 2026 Budget last week and on the surface it was very positive. The headline news is that prize money will increase by 6% next year. This is the most significant annual increase in almost two decades and will see annual prize money swell by €4.2 million in 2026. It will be early in the New Year before we find out exactly how this windfall will be distributed and the devil will be in the details. Prize money for the top level of races in Ireland is lagging way behind most other international jurisdictions and I'd imagine HRI would like to close that gap, but it is at the lower end of the sport where the biggest issues persist. Owners of low grade horses, which make up the vast majority of the horse population, are vital to the sport, but even the most successful of those owners struggle to break even. It costs just as much to have a low grade horse in training as it does a good one, but the rewards for winning at the bottom level of the sport are now such that an average horse in this bracket will need to win three times a year in order for its owner to cover their annual costs. It will be most interesting to see how HRI decides to divvy out this additional money. €4.2 million equates to an extra €1,500 per race, but I suspect it won't be that straightforward a split.
