Darren Egan handed 12-year-ban for part in '˜conspiracy'

Former jockey Darren Egan has been suspended from racing for 12 years.
By The Newsroom
Published 9th Feb 2016, 01:55 BST
Updated 9th Feb 2016, 02:17 BST
A talented apprentice, Darren Egan rode 47 winners in 2012 but is now suspended until 2027. Picture: PAA talented apprentice, Darren Egan rode 47 winners in 2012 but is now suspended until 2027. Picture: PA
A talented apprentice, Darren Egan rode 47 winners in 2012 but is now suspended until 2027. Picture: PA

Egan was found guilty of corruption charges last November but the British Horseracing Authority has now published details of the length of his ban.

The former leading apprentice was found to have engaged in a conspiracy with unlicensed individual Philip Langford, who at the time was given an immediate exclusion order which will remain in place for at least the next 15 years.

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A BHA disciplinary panel said Langford laid Egan’s rides between 17 June and 16 July, 2013, the jockey charged with having deliberately ridden to lose in two of those races – at Chepstow (Imperial Spirit) on 12 July and at Bath (Tregereth) on 16 July.

British racing’s governing body said in a statement that “the starting point for both their cases was that this was a conspiracy which struck at the heart of the sport”.

Egan, who has not ridden in Britain since October 2013, declined the BHA’s invite to provide details of any 
mitigating circumstances which could have reduced the length of his suspension.

The BHA disciplinary panel said Egan sent an email dated 23 November last year, in which he accepted he had committed wrongdoing but that he “desperately” needed money.

A BHA statement read: “It can of course be said on Egan’s behalf that he was relatively young, that he was still an apprentice, and that the corruption was initiated and pushed forward by Mr Langford.

“But Egan was a willing participant. In his email, he explains that he knew what he was doing was wrong but that, ‘I needed the money desperately’.

“The panel was unable to see any reason for mitigation in that or in anything else of which the panel was aware.”

Last Thursday, Langford sent a written submission to the BHA, who said it “contained no identification of mitigating factors” and that he was the “instigator of the conspiracy”.

Egan, who was considered a real talent and rode 47 winners in 2012, will be suspended until 22 November, 2027.