Did you hear the story about the horse trainer and his ‘imaginary horse’?
It sounds like a comedy of errors but New South Wales trainer Michael Day (Sr) has been banned for 10 years after it was found he had been taking payments for a horse that didn’t exist.
Day had been taking payments on a standard thoroughbred horse known as Miriyan between 2009 and May this year. The ‘patient’ victim of the scam who hadn’t seen their runner race in six years of ownership will at least feel some satisfaction.
Day has been banned until 2025.
Stewards who looked into the case levelled Day with the highest charges possible as they considered his case to be deceitful. The length of time the scam took place – six years – was relevant in the punishment and was the principal reason for the severity.
Day also didn’t help himself as part of the investigation. He provided false and misleading information to those investigating him, making the overall wrongdoings more significant. It wasn’t until he was involved in an interview 10 days later that he admitted to his fraud.
But it goes without saying, what was the poor owner thinking after their horse hadn’t competed in a race for over six years?
You can see the full list of charges here.
While there is no shortage of weird and wacky news in the horse racing industry, this one is right up there on the strange scale.
It is also a lesson to any owners out there who haven’t seen their horses race for a while – you should probably check that it is not imaginary.
Harry
Guest
This is so funny it defies belief.
Brent Ford
Roar Guru
Yeah I know I heard about this and was actually shocked! Could barely believe it at all haha. Imagine thinking you've got this great horse but you have never seen it, I'm more interested in how the scam all started, I would never buy a horse without knowing it actually exists :) Love that last line as well haha.
Darren Clayton
Roar Rookie
This borders on being unbelievable. Anyone who has owned or raced at horse will attest, that at some point at which the horse has not raced that you go and view the horse at track work. If this has happened and another horse has been substituted in to scam the owner more, it defies belief. From the control bodies perspective, the fact that someone has "owned" a horse for 6 years without lodging ownership transfer papers will sound an alarm bell and expect this area of the sport to now be heavily policed. It's a wonder the horse never raced because it was flying in track work! Probably because it was a unicorn.