Totally agree Peregrine. I thought the Quinn and H Johnson misdemeaners were far worse as this seemed to involve cruelty. But no social media to speak of in those days.
I dont think GE is an abuser of horses, and as to what he gets up to in his private life thats his business and should not affect racing. The story behind the photo may never be verified, and thats for GE to sort out.
I think theres a lot of stuff that happens in he world of emergency services which if made public would cause outrage. However these people are doing extremely difficult and harrowing jobs and providing they keep things private I think whatever way they find to cope with the stresses is acceptable. I'm not saying that GE's photo is acceptable but these people have to deal with death of horses on a regular basis and as such have to find ways of normalising it so they can keep going.
I think the ban is reasonable, not excessive, and a lesson has been learned for everyone in the industry.
I think the punishment is fair and thankfully his staff will remain employed.
I would like to think he is sincere in his statement after the hearing and he has learned a valuable lesson from this.
This may have set us back re the horse welfare subject but I have every confidence that this is a isolated incident with him.
What we must consider now is Gordon's well-being mentally because this must have placed a huge strain and pressure on him with all the publicly be it in the press, television and social media.
I do believe he will learn from it and indeed be a better man/trainer for it in the long run.
Let's have it right mugz no question some people have been waiting to cause trouble for g Elliot. With Cheltenham round the corner. The timing of this makes sense now. As the image was from 2019 . And g Elliot had some very well fancied horses going.nothing surprises no more.