24-06-2025
Royal Ascot trainer slapped with fine after sending wrong horse to race
Royal Ascot trainer Charlie Appleby was slapped with a £750 fine after he sent the wrong horse to race at Southwell.
The 49-year-old - who is regarded as one of the leading trainers in horse racing - declared Wishful Spirit to run at Southwell in a fillies' novice race on March 14 earlier this year.
However, the Englishman made a grave mistake as the horse that was actually present at the racecourse stables was Silent Love, a stablemate of Wishful Spirit.
Both horses are three-year-old fillies sired by Dubawi, the retired Thoroughbred racehorse. While Wishful Spirit has yet to run for the trainer, the bay is currently listed to compete next month in Tattersalls July Sale.
Silent Love, on the other hand, has already racked up three starts for the stable, including a winning run at Kempton earlier this month as well as two third-placed finishes at Newmarket and Haydock.
Appleby - who is employed by Godolphin who are the private stable of the ruling royal family of the Emirate of Dubai - admitted he breached Rule (D)8 which is the duty to check the identity of a horse as part of the Rules of Racing.
He accepted the fast-track disciplinary system taking charge of solving the case as the British Horseracing Authority had proposed the trainer pay a penalty of £750. The figure was accepted by Appleby which ranks as the suggested entry point for a fine which ranges from £450 all the way up to £1,500.
In the final verdict of the case, the disciplinary panel had come to the conclusion that the mishap had happened due to the failure of the horse's identity being checked against the passport that had been filed.
Mistaken identity in the world of horse racing is not as uncommon as some may think with numerous cases having occurred in recent years.
In one of the more compelling situations, legendary trainer Aidan O'Brien admitted that there was "no excuse" after his fillies Mother Earth and Snowfall had accidentally carried the other's numbers and riders in what was a major error in the Fillies' Mile in 2020.
Two years after, another horse identity controversy ensued after Brian Ellison offered an apology after he withdrew his runner at Bangor after a mix-up occurred when he tried accepting the correct horse in Sworn To Be Free from a pre-training organisation.
