Jockey with Crohn’s disease hit with ban for not declaring new prescription

13 September 2023 , 15:57

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Jockey Harry Burns: had his licence suspended for two months (Image: PA)

A jockey who suffers from Crohn’s disease says he feels "let down by the BHA" after he was suspended for two months for not telling officials he had changed his medication.

Harry Burns, 28, has been managing the lifelong condition at the same time as carving out a career as a professional Flat jockey.

The claimer gave up the sport in 2018 but since coming back in 2021 he has ridden 55 winners, most of them for employers Simon and Ed Crisford, including one on the top class Algiers.

Crohn’s Disease causes inflammation of the gut with symptoms including diarrhoea, stomach aches and cramps.

Burns talked last year of how he had made lifestyle changes to enable him to make a successful return to the saddle.

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Under racing’s rules jockeys are required to seek prior consent from the BHA’s chief medical advisor Dr Jerry Hill if they are prescribed with a notifiable medication.

Burns had followed the protocol previously, but in March this year he provided a urine sample at Wolverhampton after which it emerged he had been prescribed a medication two months earlier by his GP which appeared on the BHA’s list of "banned substances and notifiable medications" as a notifiable medication, and not told Hill.

Burns admitted breaching the rules at a disciplinary hearing, held in camera, of which only a summary of the findings have been made public, blaming “human error’ and said it had “slipped my mind” to declare the medication.

The panel accepted there were mitigating factors and no evidence his performance was impaired by the unnamed substance.

But it said Burns had missed numerous opportunities to declare the medication and did not believe it had slipped his mind.

Burns said: “I think the punishment is harsh, as it’s not a banned substance. In my opinion the punishment doesn’t fit the crime. I feel a bit let down by the BHA.”

Jon Lees