British trainer gets year ban

British trainer Karl Burke was suspended by the British Horseracing Board for a year on Monday for supplying inside information to gamblers on six of his horses who ran during May and June of 2004.

The decision follows on the heels of the suspensions of jockeys Darren Williams and Fergal Lynch and former owner Miles Rodgers, whose race-fixing trial involving the same issues fell apart in civil court.

Despite that court dismissal, Rodgers was ruled off for life, while Williams was suspended for three months. Lynch, now riding in America, was suspended from riding in Britain for a year.

Burke's yearlong suspension is to begin July 28, until which he has the right of appeal.

He is based at Spigot Lodge in Middleham, North Yorkshire, where he has more than a hundred horses under his care, among them Lord Shanakill, who gave him his first Group 1 winner earlier this month at Chantilly in the Prix Jean Prat, and Lesson in Humility, winner of the Group 3 Ballyogan Stakes at Leopardstown last month.

* Utmost Respect, one of Europe's leading sprinters, died Sunday of peritonitis. A gelded 5-year-old son of Danetime, Utmost Respect was a four-time group-race winner going six furlongs. He had won his last three starts, the Group 3 Greenlands Stakes at the Curragh, the Group 2 Duke of York Stakes at York, and the Group 3 Prix de Seine-et-Oise at Maisons-Laffitte.