The winners of the 2022 Irish Thoroughbred Welfare Council Best-Turned-Out League were announced on Friday. Staff from yards of Jim Bolger, Gordon Elliott, James Fahey, Michael Halford, Eoin McCarthy, Michael O'Callaghan and Robert Tyner's were honoured in different categories.
The categories are based on the number of runners each yard had during their season. Each yard wins €3,000 to be divided among staff. The winning yards are as follows:
- Flat Category A: Jim Bolger's yard with 72 best-turned-out horses from 279 runners.
- Flat Category B: Michael Halford's yard with 85 best-turned-out competitions from 216 runners.
- Flat Category C: Michael O'Callaghan's yard with 37 best-turned-out horses from 119 runners.
- Jumps Category A: Gordon Elliott's staff with 160 best-turned-out horses from 1,196 runners.
- Jumps Category B: Eoin McCarthy's yard with 74 best-turned-out horses from 193 runners.
- Jumps Category C: James Fahey's yard and Robert Tyner's team in a dead heat with 30 best-turned-out winners from just 64 and 82 runners, respectively. They share the €3,000 prize-money.
Bolger, Halford, Elliott, and Fahey's teams were also honoured in 2021.
John Osborne, Equine Welfare & Bloodstock Director at HRI, said, “Once again the best-turned-out (BTO) league has rewarded excellence in horse care while highlighting the high standard across the racing industry. We are delighted to see that over 280 different yards won a BTO prize during the year and the feedback is that it is getting ultra-competitive among yards. We have repeat winners from 2021 in the Elliott, Bolger, Halford and James Fahey yards with new category winners from Michael O'Callaghan's, Eoin McCarthy and Robert Tyner's. It was especially exciting to see the dead heat between James Fahey and Robert Tyner's in the last few days of the competition.”
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