[ad_1]
Ten horse racing trainers have obtained cellphone calls from somebody claiming to be the “acid man”, who threatened to spray acid of their faces.
These focused embody six-time champion jumps coach Nicky Henderson, Gary Moore and flat trainers Charlie Fellowes and Richard Fahey.
The Nationwide Trainers Federation (NTF) reported the threats from earlier this month to police, who’re investigating.
“It is fairly horrendous stuff,” stated NTF chief govt Paul Johnson.
Essex Police stated it was investigating “plenty of experiences of malicious communications” on 10 November which it believes have been linked.
Chatting with BBC Sport, Johnson stated: “The particular menace itself was from any individual claiming to be ‘the acid man’ and – there are barely completely different variations of the identical story – that they might faucet the coach on the shoulder on the racecourse subsequent time they noticed them and they’d spray acid of their face.”
Johnson stated trainers have been used to receiving abuse however this was a reminder that “it isn’t acceptable”, whereas particular person jockeys have additionally been focused prior to now.
Saffie Osborne was despatched demise threats in 2021 which led Lucy Snowden, spouse of coach Jamie Snowden, to arrange an initiative the place individuals within the sport may report abuse.
The initiative was widened by the NTF and this was the place the trainers reported the acid threats.
In an announcement, Essex Police stated: “We’re investigating plenty of experiences of malicious communications which occurred on November 10 2023.
“We’re persevering with to evaluate the experiences and, at this stage, we’re linking every of them. In whole, 10 victims have been recognized and our investigation is ongoing.”
[ad_2]