Verdict pending after Hillsin hearing comes to a close

A verdict in the Hillsin inquiry is now pending after the British Horseracing Authority’s independent disciplinary panel hearing concluded on Monday.

Trainer Chris Honour, jockey Dylan Kitts and John Higgins, an associate of Hillsin’s owner Alan Clegg, were all charged with deliberately stopping the horse from winning the Wacky Weekender Festival Pitchcroft 21st-23rd July Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle at Worcester in July 2023.

Honour and Higgins deny all the charges, while during the course of the four-day hearing, which began last Monday, it was heard that Kitts had admitted to preventing the horse from running on its merits when initially interviewed in October 2023. Clegg has not been accused of any wrongdoing.

Final submissions were made on Monday, with Louis Weston, who was representing the BHA, saying that Hillsin was given “a pretty obvious stopping ride” after he finished a one-and-a-quarter-length third over two years ago.

He said: “You should find that Mr Higgins seems to have targeted Mr Kitts and seems to have tried to suborn him to join in a plan.

“We also say it’s pretty obvious that’s what he was doing with Mr Honour and while I say that Mr Honour’s good character is no defence, it seems that he was the type of a person who was willing to appease people and he was on his own language out to impress and had prospects of goodness and riches drifted under his nose.”

Kitts claimed during his evidence he was instructed to prevent Hillsin from winning and said he was told if “I had to break my neck to make sure then so be it”.

The rider’s aunt Caroline Cox spoke on his behalf, underlining he has no plans to return to the sport.

She said: “He stood to gain nothing yet has been left to carry the blame for circumstances he did not create and could not control.”

Honour was represented by Roderick Moore, who said: “I say Mr Honour is innocent of all three charges.

“The stopping charges, I say, rest solely on Mr Kitts’ allegations. The other matters which the BHA have swept together in an effort persuade you that somehow Mr Honour was something to do with this, I say they tend to show no such thing whether taken individually or together.”

Higgins was not in attendance at the hearing due to ill health and has refused to cooperate with the BHA. As a result he was placed on the exclusion list in March 2024, along with his son-in-law, footballer Ashley Barnes.