RULING NUMBER COM TB 025/2013

COMMISSION HEARING TORONTO, ONTARIO – DECEMBER 10, 2013

NOTICE OF DECISION

IN THE MATTER OF THE RACING COMMISSION ACT, S.O. 2000, c.20;

AND IN THE MATTER OF THE APPEAL OF SHEENA RYAN

Sheena Ryan, Licence No. 135011, appealed against Ruling Number TB 8361/2013.

Date of Hearing: December 10, 2013

ORC Panel Member: Commissioner John W. Macdonald

Representative for the Appellant: Self represented

Agent for the Administration: Craig Walker

The Panel denied the appeal.

The three-day riding suspension will be served on December 14 & 15, 2013, and the first day of the racing season in 2014 at Woodbine Racetrack.

A transcript with the Panel’s oral Reasons for Decision is attached to this Notice.

DATED at Toronto this 13th day of December 2013.

Steven Lehman

Executive Director

ONTARIO RACING COMMISSION

THOROUGHBRED HEARING

IN THE MATTER OF THE RACING COMMISSION ACT, 2000, S.O. C.20 AND THE RULES OF THOROUGHBRED RACING:

AND IN THE MATTER OF AN APPEAL AND REQUEST FOR HEARING OF SHEENA RYAN:

Held Before:

John Macdonald Chairman

These are an excerpt of the proceedings in the above mentioned matter held before The Ontario Racing Commission, Re: SHEENA RYAN, taken before Toronto Court Reporters, Suite 1410, 65 Queen Street West, Toronto, Ontario, at 10 Carlson Court, Suite 400, Toronto, Ontario, on the 10th day of December, 2013.

Appearances:

Craig Walker,

agent for the Ontario Racing Commission Administration

Hearing continued ...

MR. CHAIRMAN: I guess there is a couple of places where I understand the decision to disagree and that was one of correcting. The second one was whether the horse was clear or not but as the Rules, and one can mention 11.07, starts off with when clear. There wasn't enough indication from the video and the testimony that would show that the horse was clear. Unfortunately the left handed hitting by Ms. Ryan pushed the horse out. He went out at least five or six lanes impeding. The good news is that there was no bumping that we could tell that would have caused problems to Mr. Pizarro but you can see that he did have to move his horse and yes, you mentioned, Mr. Parente, that Mr. Pizarro's horse did turn his head a little bit at one stage but that was early on. I don't think that was anything consequential. I've listened to the testimony as carefully as I could, saw the video and I was convinced that there was an impeding and looking at the Rules there was no intimidation but there was interference and that impeding movement. It moved Mr. Pizarro's horse out a considerable distance. He ended up five and a half to six lanes out from where it was at the one stage. So it is unfortunate. It was a good race, the fans would have liked it but the Judges or I'm sorry, the Stewards in this case saw that there was an impeding and the result of that was that Ms. Ryan's horse was disqualified and placed second for impeding the horse. So I am going to deny the appeal and the suspension will stay three days, which is pretty standard for this type of riding offence and the good news is that there was no accident and part of that was Mr. Pizarro's ability to keep his horse from pulling in, in which case there might have been intimidation if he had tried to push back. So the question then the three day suspension have the days been agreed upon or can we decide on that?

(DISCUSSION OFF THE RECORD)

MR. WALKER: So Ms. Ryan will ride on Friday and then she will have to serve Saturday and Sunday and the start of the first day next year.

MR. PARENTE: Which it states here in the Ontario Racing Commission full racing will be conducted April 12, 2014.

MR. WALKER: So it will be April the 12th then.

MR. CHAIRMAN: Thank you all.

CERTIFIED CORRECT:______________________________

RAYMOND P. MACDONALD, B.A., CVR

Commissioner of Oaths