Racing News round-up:The Co Tyrone-based trainer Lindsay Woods picked up a €500 fine and had his horse, Chestnut Charlie, disqualified from two bumper wins when a Turf Club inquiry found him guilty yesterday of running the horse under a different name at a "flapper" meeting last year.
A Turf Club investigation found that Chestnut Charlie raced under the name of "The Boxer" at an unregistered meeting, which are known as "flaps," in Boyle, Co Roscommon, on August 27th, last year.
The subsequent investigation included a visit to Woods's stables near Strabane in April of this year and a Referrals Committee meeting yesterday decided Woods was in breach of Rule 148(vi) and fined him €500.
As a result, Chestnut Charlie was found to be not qualified to race afterwards and he has been disqualified from two bumper successes at Downpatrick on February 28th and Limerick on March 18th of this year.
Also at the Turf Club yesterday, the top National Hunt trainer Arthur Moore was fined €250 and his horse, Rambling Royal, banned for 60 days after an enquiry at Cork on April 8th couldn't go ahead as the man who presented himself as Moore's representative was not an authorised representative.
Kieren Fallon will be at Leopardstown this evening where the controversial jockey can secure some minor consolation for missing out on Royal Ascot when the Danehill Dancer newcomer, Lizard Island, makes his debut in the opening six-furlong maiden. Fallon will be on board the topweight Tango Foxtrot in the mile-and-a-quarter handicap but this one has to carry a 7lb penalty for winning at Navan and could be vulnerable to a lightly-weighted runner like the Naas runner-up Chakeera.
Many Colours upset an odds-on favourite when breaking her maiden at Tipperary and could get the better of the topweight Little White Lie in the seven-furlong handicap this evening.
n Connections of Lawman are mulling over options for the French Derby winner.
The Prix Jean Prat at Chantilly next month and the Irish Champion Stakes at Leopardstown in September are being considered for the colt, trained by Jean-Marc Beguigne.
Lawman was partnered at exercise yesterday by Olivier Peslier before the jockey travelled to Royal Ascot. "We don't know if he'll go for the Prix Jean Prat or maybe the Irish Champion Stakes," Peslier said.
Peslier rode Lawman in his first three races this season but was claimed for In Dream in the Prix du Jockey-Club, leaving Frankie Dettori to come in for the winning ride in the Chantilly Classic.
n Ascot were hit by a huge drop in attendance on the opening day of the Royal meeting, with the crowd down almost 15,000 on 2006.
Despite a warm and dry day, only 40,191 racegoers passed through the turnstiles compared to 54,838 on the corresponding afternoon 12 months ago.
