Milton Harris stripped of training licence after ‘bullying’ and ‘inappropriate behaviour’ | Horse racing

The turbulent career of Milton ­Harris appeared to reach an abject conclusion on Wednesday when the Grade One-winning trainer’s licence was removed indefinitely by the ­British Horseracing Authority’s Licensing Committee, due to multiple breaches of its conditions ­including significant financial mismanagement, initiating a campaign of bullying and intimidation against fellow trainer Simon Earle, who shared some of his facilities, and serious concerns around safeguarding issues at his yard.

The panel’s decision that Harris is “not a fit and proper person” to hold a licence marks the end of his second spell as a trainer. The first, between 2000 and 2011, ended when he was made bankrupt over an unpaid tax bill, and he spent seven years out of the sport until the BHA, which had turned down two applications in the intervening period, finally agreed to reissue his licence in 2018, subject to a number of conditions.

The conditions included a stipulation that “all horse transactions would be solely by way of written agreement … and all information regarding the terms of any sale of an interest in a horse trained or to be trained [by Harris] would be available to the BHA on request.” Following a four-day hearing earlier this month, however, the licensing committee said in its written findings on Wednesday that Harris “was in breach [of the condition] from the date of its issue in November 2018 and never intended to comply”.

It also found that Harris had “behaved inappropriately and in a manner designed to exert inappropriate control and power over the personal and private lives of young and vulnerable employees”; that he had “conducted … and caused ­others to join a campaign of bullying and intimidation” against Earle, and that “his conduct before the panel included crude attempts to pervert the process, carried out with an arrogance that suggests he felt the panel would not see his behaviour for what it is.”

The panel heard evidence from two female former employees at ­Harris’s yard, who are referred to only by initials as SJO and LHR, below the age of 16 at the time.

It heard that Harris sent a large number of WhatsApp messages to SJO, who was between 14 and 16 years of age during her time at the yard, from an account which had “a depiction of a nude adult female” as its avatar.

Harris told the panel that he had given SJO the name “Lovely Young Girl”, so that all his messages to her would show by that name, adding that this was “entirely innocent”, since “he thought that she was a lovely person in the platonic sense of her personality”.

This, the panel says, was “hard to believe, given his willingness to enter conversation with sexual ­connotations with SJO elsewhere in the messages and his tendency to drive the conversation back towards adult topics.” The panel also records in its findings, however, that it does not “think that [Harris’s] conduct with SJO was done for reasons of sexual gratification.”

In respect of the witness LHR, the panel heard evidence of an incident in which she was driven alone on to the gallops by Harris and found that she was unable to get out of the car, “she assumed because the child lock was activated”.

As a result, she said, Harris “laughed and made a comment about liking to keep all girls locked in”. While the panel did not find that Harris chose to lock the door or that there was a “sinister motive” on his part, it did find that his comment was “inappropriate” and had caused “discomfort”.

The findings also detail a “campaign of abuse and harassment” by Harris against Earle, his neighbour, who shared his gallops. A number of incidents involving the trainers were recorded by Earle and heard by the panel, including an exchange on the gallops when Harris approached Earle and shouted: “Don’t talk to my staff or get out of the fucking [inaudible]. You’re a nobody. You’re kept … you’re a kept man, you cocksucker. Kept. You’re kept. Mummy’s little boy. You’re fucking useless. You’re useless. Pathetic.”

Further incidents of verbal abuse and intimidation are detailed in the findings, including one as recent as November 2023, when Harris had been warned not to contact or approach any individuals giving evidence to the hearing. The panel also expresses concern that Earle and his wife “may well have been extremely frustrated by the refusal of BHA officers to listen to them” during an investigation into the relationship between the two trainers.

Harris told PA Media on Wednesday thathe was “obviously disappointed” by the committee’s decision, adding: “My immediate priority is to look after the horses, owners and long-serving staff here and in the immediate [future] that will be my sole focus. I will make a statement in a few days’ time.”