Chynna Marston suing Tumut Turf Club for fall as Racing NSW find her guilty of mistreating horses

Chynna Marston has resigned from Sky Racing and thrown down the gauntlet to Racing NSW bosses after the horseracing body found the former TV presenter guilty of mistreating thoroughbred horses in her care.

Chynna Marston has resigned from Sky Racing and thrown down the gauntlet to Racing NSW bosses after the horseracing body found the former TV presenter guilty of mistreating thoroughbred horses in her care.

An emboldened and unapologetic Marston has launched legal action with a claim for workplace injuries against Tumut Turf Club, where in November 2014 the then-apprentice jockey suffered a fall from her mount in a race that was later cancelled due to wet weather.

On Saturday, horseracing insiders confirmed that nine years after Marston, then 23, sustained a broken nose and trauma to her back and neck in her career-ending fall from Zarababe, she is going after Tumut Turf Club for lost earnings.

Racing NSW bosses declined to comment on the injuries claim when approached on Saturday.

The long-delayed claim comes after Racing NSW found Marston guilty of eight equine welfare breaches concerning the neglect of thoroughbreds on August 23.

As a result of those charges, Marston was suspended from her on-air tipping role on Tabcorp’s Sky Racing in June.

She did not return to air before tendering her resignation a week ago.

Racing NSW has found Alexander Kean and Chynna Marston guilty of eight equine welfare breaches. Picture: Instagram

The conclusion of Racing NSW’s latest investigation — which made damning findings against Marston and her latest boyfriend, Alex Kean, who was found guilty of seven charges, including shooting a horse dead and disposing of it on a bonfire — preceded Marston issuing a lengthy and controversial 17-minute statement on streaming platform Vimeo.

In the video, entitled “My Stance”, Marston asserts that she will no longer participate in the Racing NSW investigation, which she claims is “a vendetta” relating to “legal proceedings that are occurring against a Racing NSW club regarding my fall”.

A raceday fall ended Marston’s career as a jockey. Picture: Instagram

She furthermore said she plans to have her day in court.

“I intend to take my side of things — and the truth — to the grown-up court … and have things heard in an actual court scenario and certainly things will play out quite differently there, I am sure,” she said.

The social media starlet claims to be the victim of her own high profile, and alleges to be the subject of ongoing “harassment” by racing stewards who, she said, had been “trespassing” on her Bowning NSW property.

As outlined in the publicly available report on the Racing NSW investigation, stewards have been visiting Marston’s property, the headquarters of her rehoming and retraining charity Recycled Racehorses, to conduct welfare checks following concerns for the wellbeing of horses kept at the leased agistment property.

Marston claims to have contacted police about the stewards’ welfare checks and been told by police to change her phone number and email address to stop what she described as “harassment”.

The eight charges of equine abuse relate to 12 retired thoroughbreds entrusted into her care at Recycled Racehorses.

Those horses are Scene Of The Crime, Melomaniac, Desert Digby, Gave Me You, Paris Carver, Grey Mantra, Mortarman, Divine Dream, Totolo, Dashing Stars and two horses yet to be identified.

Marston was also found guilty of failing to provide appropriate veterinary care and prescribed feed to another four horses — Benny’s Jet, Daphne, Ignite The Love and Gentleman Max.

Marston, pictured here with former colleague John Scorse, has resigned from her job at Sky Racing. Picture: Instagram

Two historic claims, that came to light after this writer began assembling a dossier of complaints about Marston in June, also resulted in two charges.

Racing NSW found that Marston had failed to provide adequate nutrition to the horses Budderoo Dragon and Frankenbeans (aka BJ and Ned in our previous story), as far back as 2017 and 2018.

Along with racing stewards and this writer, whom Marston labels “pathetic”, “ridiculous” and “incompetent” in her video spray, (though she does eventually acknowledge my attempts to contact her, contradicting an earlier statement that “not a single journalist has reached out …”) — Marston takes aim at a slate of horse racing identities.

This includes former Sky Racing colleagues, a man she says was jailed after rape and kidnapping allegations, and one randomly nominated high-profile Australian horse breeder whose path she may never have crossed.

For years there have been unsubstantiated rumours Marston’s employment at Sky Racing was contingent on her not proceeding with legal action against the Tumut club over her fall.

Now it appears all bets are off.

The horseracing body will hand down penalties to Marston and Kean on Wednesday.

This columnist put some questions to Marston, which she ignored.

However, she did offer a character assessment and some advice on what our next moves should be.

She also wrongly suggested she hadn’t been approached for comment previously.

Here are the bits we can publish: “You have to be the lowest, pathetic and most vindictive person I have ever come across,” she writes in an email.

“Get your pathetic arse out of the hole you live in and come and see the horses and the charity you have ruined.

“Otherwise, go f. k yourself.”

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