Howard Johnson retires after receiving four-year ban

Trainer Howard Johnson has retired from the horse training ranks after the British Horse Association handed him a four year ban.

Johnson’s career has spanned a quarter of a century and he was given the ban on Thursday and was given nine charges.

He was given three charges relating to the 'de-nerving' of chaser Striking Article, and six concerning the administering of anabolic steroids to three other horses.

The BHA's disciplinary panel told The Guardian that Johnson had shown a "cavalier indifference" to the rules of racing. Johnson admitted instructing a vet to perform a neurectomy operation on Striking Article but denied knowing that horses are not allowed to be raced after such a procedure.

The BHA told The Guardian"Johnson has shown a reckless disregard for the rules so as to jeopardise the future welfare of a gelding in training and the safety of those jockeys and stable staff who were engaged to ride it," the panel concluded. A three-year ban would "reflect the need to remove Johnson's right to train horses for a period of time which is more than a mere suspension of his business".

Johnson has come out after his retirement saying that he is the victim of a vendetta and told The Mirror: "I'll not come back after the way they've treated me. I've got a week to appeal, but I'll not bother.

"I knew from day one, when I went down there, I said to my lawyer, 'We've got no chance here.' "They make their own rules - it's a bloody kangaroo court.”