Robin Bastiman has been banned from racing for three years and told he should be “deeply ashamed” after a disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority found he had injected a horse with a substance containing cobalt on a day it was due to race.

The panel also had harsh words for the conduct of his daughter, Rebecca, but ruled she can continue to train from the family’s Wetherby yard because she had asked her father to stop injecting horses with a vitamin B12 supplement and probably did not know he was still doing so in April 2016, when John Caesar ran and won at Wolverhampton.

Robin Bastiman risks ban after admitting he lied to disciplinary panel Read more

Rebecca Bastiman had been warned she might also be disqualified over three charges she admitted in relation to the finding of a high level of cobalt, which can delay the onset of fatigue. The panel decided against that after an emotional plea from the trainer, who revealed she had a brain tumour removed in 2011, has since had chemotherapy and radiotherapy and continues to receive treatment.

“Horses have been my life,” she said. “If my licence is taken off me, I’ve got nothing to look forward to. When I was having seizures, I went into a deep depression and the only way I could get out of that depression was by being around the horses. I don’t know how I could get by, it would be like giving me a prison sentence, if you take away my horses.”

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The panel acknowledged it had taken her health difficulties into account in deciding to levy a fine rather than impose a ban. It fined her £5,000 after hearing she had savings of £7,000 and was able to take a weekly income of £80 from the training business.

David Fish QC, chairing the panel, told her: “You should never have allowed your father to feed the horses unsupervised in view of his history,” a reference to Bastiman Sr’s admission he had injected horses with B12 throughout his career, including on days when they were due to race.

“You should have adopted control of the medical cabinet when you took over. Your failure in this respect was lamentable and something about which you ought to be ashamed.”

He said she had come within a whisker of being found guilty of the more serious charge of knowingly allowing an injection to be made on raceday.

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Fish reserved his strongest condemnation for Robin Bastiman, telling him: “You lied in your evidence. Your actions were disgraceful and have put your daughter’s licence at risk. We hope you are deeply ashamed.”

Bastiman, who trained Borderlescott to win the Nunthorpe twice before passing the licence to his daughter, showed no sign of shame or contrition as he spoke in the immediate aftermath. “I’ve never been interrogated like this before in my life,” he said. “You sit in there and listen to how they can twist words and all the rest of it. That’s what their job is. I got flustered.”

After the verdict, he sought to deflect blame by criticising the BHA for its actions in other areas. When asked about his admission of making raceday injections, he replied: “I’d no knowledge it was a prohibited substance.”

On being reminded horses are not allowed to be injected on a raceday, Bastiman said: “Well, probably that was just a mistake on my part, wasn’t it? I made a mistake. We’re all human.”