Annette Sharp: Seven-year horse ban for Chynna Marston and Alex Kean

Having been banned from working with horses for seven years, former glamour jockey and Sky Racing poster girl Chynna Marston can now be found working behind a shop counter, writes Annette Sharp.

Three years after former Sky Racing poster girl Chynna Marston was first called before a Racing NSW inquiry on charges of mistreating and neglecting racehorses, the former jockey was on Wednesday banned from being involved with thoroughbreds until 2030 following a ruling on new charges.

Racing NSW, prompted by a tip-off from the RSPCA, handed down a seven-year ban, reduced from 13 years due to a concurrent terms principle, on eight animal welfare charges.

Her partner Alex Kean, who was found to have shot and incinerated a horse on a bonfire, was given a lesser ban of six years (reduced from 10 years) relating to seven charges.

The inquiry found the pair failed to provide adequate nutrition, water and veterinary care to more than a dozen retired racehorses.

Ex-Sky Racing presenter Chynna Marston (right) and her partner Alex Kean have been banned from being involved with thoroughbreds until 2030.

According to witnesses who attended a previous inquiry involving Marston, in 2020 she was charged by Racing NSW with an additional eight animal welfare breaches and on July 2 of that year handed a $10,000 suspended fine along with a set of conditions that included reducing the number of racehorses in her care to 15 by September 2, 2020, and providing unfettered access to stewards having to conduct welfare checks at her property.

Marston has recently taken to social media to slam stewards for “trespassing” on her property.

So what next for the prematurely retired Sky Racing commentator and glamour jockey?

First up, her charity Recycled Racehorses, the organisation she founded in 2015, at whose registered location the animal welfare breaches took place, has been red-flagged by the Australian Charities and Not-For-Profits Commission for its failure to provide financial reports for the years 2022 and 2023.

These administrative delays may not compromise the organisation’s charity status however enough letters of complaint and concern, emailed to the commission, could.

While Marston works on her threatened workplace injuries claim against Tumut Turf Club for historic injuries from her fall in a 2014 race, it transpires that she has also started looking for a job.

We hear her attempts at securing work alongside Kean, a miner, at a Hunter Valley mine have been unsuccessful.

However, one Canberra equine supply shop has given her a start.

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