Hefty Fine For Winters

Cork based trainer Michael Winters was fined €6,000 after stewards enquired into the running and riding of his Churchtown Glen (Ire) (Getaway {Ger}) in the opening race at Cork on Sunday. Jockey Barry John Foley was banned for 21 days and the horse for 60 days after stewards deemed Churchtown Glen, who finished seventh, was not allowed run on his merits. Churchtown Glen, an 80/1 shot, was having his third run of his career, having finished 10^th of 18 on his previous start and commenting on the severity of the fine stewards secretary Liam Walsh told The Racing Post, “We felt that a penalty stronger than the norm was appropriate on this occasion.” Mick Winters has handled some classy horses in the past such as Missunited (Ire) (Golan {Ire}) and Rebel Fitz (Fr) (Agent Bleu {Fr}) and he had better fortune later in the day when his Granny Biddy (Ire) (Flemensfirth) won for the fifth time this season. The trainer indicated an appeal would be likely and said, “I understand that stewards are perfectly entitled to look into incidents like this, but things have not been straightforward with this horse and I just wish they would take things like that more into account.” He continued, “There will be no small trainers left in the land with fines like that. To pay that sort of fine I would nearly have to have some sort of collection done for me.”