Jockey Harry Bentley has been suspended for two months and fined HK$300,000 after pleading guilty to a charge of improper conduct under Rule of Racing 155 (5).
The rule states that “no person shall be guilty of any misconduct, improper conduct or inappropriate behaviour”.
In a statement on Monday afternoon, Jockey Club chief steward Marc van Gestel confirmed Bentley’s improper conduct involved engaging in “inappropriate communications in respect to information about horses he had ridden in trackwork, barrier trials or races with persons who were not the registered owners or nominators of such horses [and] using a private mobile telephone provided by such persons.
“Agreeing to accept a payment from a person who was not the nominator of a horse in relation to a race he had ridden in [and] providing false or misleading statements at an interview conducted on October 31 2023.”
Van Gestel goes on to outline that Bentley did not receive any payment despite agreeing to accept one.
Bentley’s suspension and hefty fine follow a period of uncertainty, with no communication from Jockey Club officials between Bentley’s standing down at 7.30pm on Friday November 3 and when stewards issued the jockey with a charge, minus any details, last Thursday evening.
In between was a lengthy hearing at Happy Valley on Monday last week and another sitting last Tuesday, with Van Gestel confirming when issuing the charge that the final hearing was deferred to Monday at the request of Bentley to allow for his legal representative to appear.
Bentley’s suspension has been backdated to when he was stood down on November 3, meaning he will be free to ride again at the Happy Valley meeting on January 4.
The 31-year-old, who rode seven winners before being stood down and is still clinging to a spot in the top 10 in the jockeys’ premiership, has missed three meetings already and will be sidelined for another 15 Hong Kong fixtures.
In that time falls the Longines International Jockeys’ Championship, for which Bentley would have had an outside chance of qualifying, and the Longines Hong Kong International Races.
“In determining the penalty, the stewards took into consideration his guilty plea, the nature and circumstances of the breach, including that the evidence established that Mr Bentley did not receive the payment as detailed in point two, Mr Bentley’s personal and professional circumstances at the time of the offence and his unblemished record in relation to similar offences,” Van Gestel continued in the statement.
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Bentley, who has been a member of the Hong Kong jockeys’ roster since April 2021, holds a full-season licence and, should his intention be to remain in the city, he will have the final 55 meetings of the campaign to convince the licensing committee to retain him.
Bentley’s suspension comes just two days after star Australian jockey Hugh Bowman suffered fractures to his scapula and vertebrae that are expected to keep him sidelined for a month or more.
The absence of the pair reduces the Hong Kong roster to 20 riders, with Jockey Club officials hard at work trying to confirm at least one replacement for the winter period.
