RACING Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey said it’s not “a rubber stamp job” that Logan McGill will take over the training of Mark Riley’s team.
Riley’s battle to stave off a three-year disqualification for taking his galloper Gold For Kev to the races at Mornington with an elevated TCO2 reading in 2014 ended when Racing Victoria successfully appealed to the Court Of Appeals on Wednesday.
After this was reinstated Riley said he intended to transfer his horses to his assistant trainer Logan McGill. His disqualification begins on October 1.
“We’re working through this at the moment. It’s not automatic that he can transfer his horses to Logan McGill as Mr Riley has indicated,” Bailey said.
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READ NOWBailey said they had denied a similar application in the past.
Stewards rejected Riley’s application to transfer his two-year-old Of The Brave to McGill before the 2015 Blue Diamond Stakes.
Riley then went to VCAT on the eve of the Blue Diamond Stakes and they allowed him to have a stay of proceedings.
“We consider Logan a close associate of Mark Riley’s as he’s his assistant trainer. In the past we’ve deemed it as an unworkable situation,” he said.
Riley has 20 horses on his books which are trained at Glenhuntly Lodge, Mornington.
“We opposed it then. Some might say if the horses are transferred to Logan McGill they won’t even have to leave their boxes. We are working through this process and haven’t made a decision.”