Fergal O’Brien decides not to appeal against Wincanton schooling penalties, citing lack of potential benefit.

The trainer was fined £4,000 and the jockey banned for 18 days, beginning on April 22, after stewards found Brennan had failed to ride Northern Air in such a way that he could be seen to ask for “timely, real and substantial effort” to obtain the best possible placing. The penalties were the maximum possible for schooling and conditioning a horse on the racecourse.

The mare was a notable market drifter out to 5-1 and ran on strongly under tender handling to finish second to Navajo Indy in the 1m7f maiden hurdle. She has been prohibited from running for 40 days.

O’Brien, who was not at Wincanton, told the Racing Post: “We’re not going to appeal because we just don’t feel there’s any mileage in it. We accept our punishment but at the end of the day Paddy was just looking after the mare and I support the ride he gave her.

It was in the best interests of her future.” Senior steward Tom Evetts told Racing TV on Monday: “The question that you could ask is where the line between intent and schooling is.

We’ve done her under schooling. Intent is where the rider is doing the opposite of what we’d expect.

“I got very excited for Cheltenham and it fell apart, so I’m not getting overly excited about Aintree,” the trainer said. “I love going there and I’m excited about that but we just need to get there.

Dysart Enos going wrong two days before Cheltenham took the wind out of our sails and then to lose Highland Hunter on the first day summed up our week. Crambo then ran worse than I could have ever anticipated.

There was no real reason for his run, nothing has come to light to explain it, so hopefully it was a one-off. Racing Post have got the best offers, all in one place.