Day was paid fees over a six-year period by a client who believed her mare, Jag One, had had a foal and was in training under Day's care. This foal did not exist, however. Day informed his client on 7th January 2009 that a foal - to be named Miriyan - had been born, and he received monthly training fees from 1st October 2012 until 13th January 2015. He passed off another foal as ‘Miriyan' on the occasions that his client came to see her horse.

Asked by his client when Miriyan might run, Day claimed that the horse was either suffering from illness or was injured. When Day then claimed that Miriyan had been sent to a veterinary unit in Kilmore, the client contacted the facility only to find that no horse of that name was there.

Suspicious, the client got in touch with New South Wales Harness Racing who conducted an investigation. Day was arrested on 20th October 2015, and he offered a full admission of his guilt when interviewed. He is to be sentenced on 16th March and has been warned that he faces a custodial sentence. Day's solicitor Tim McGrath, quoted in the Sydney Morning Herald, said: "He realises now that when the vet told him there was no foal that he should have told the client."

It took an interview with the police for him to admit he should have told the owner there was not a foal! This heinous individual must receive a life-time ban from all racing and not 10 years. Compensation plus damages must be paid to the owner of the non-existent foal in the first instance. The custodial sentence serves little real purpose but must happen if only to lay down a marker!

NSW Harness Racing conducted their own investigation to the matter and disqualified Day from the racing industry for 10 years. The callousness and longevity of the crime demands a lifetime ban!

Day's solicitor Tim McGrath said his client had been a man of overall good character until this matter. Day had trained Gundary Flyer to win the Miracle Mile in 1982 and had been a self-employed horse trainer for the past 38 years. The solicitor said: “He is a person of good skill and reputation and he now realises that he has also been disqualified from the industry and is unlikely to ever train horses again and thus he has lost his livelihood. He said Day was being treated for depression.”

Magistrate Carolyn Hunstman found Day guilty and ordered him to undertake an assessment for an Intensive Corrections Order, with a final sentencing in Goulburn Local Court on 16th March. She said she had no alternative to a custodial sentence: “It is a serious fraud over a long period of time, it is not appropriate to give you a suspended sentence."

No compensation order has been made at this stage.

Apart from the obvious what makes this crime so bad is that Michael Day had secured a place in history with one of the most fantastic wins in the Miracle Mile. His pacer Gundary Flyer had twice galloped before the off twice causing false starts before racing out of the back then winning the 16th running of the Miracle Mile. Instead of being remembered for this great win he will forever be associated with the phantom horse that never existed. Please watch this clip to see the brilliance of the win:

The 16th running of the Craven Filter Miracle Mile from Sydney's Harold Park Paceway. Here we see Michael Day in the sulky behind Gundary Flyer. Words like crying and shame now spring to mind...

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