Cricketer Mark Waugh’s wife facing animal cruelty charges

The wife of Australian cricketing legend Mark Waugh is facing animal cruelty charges and is set to face an inquiry board at the end of the month to defend her name.

Kim Waugh, who is one of the country’s top racehorse trainers, is facing animal cruelty charges that allege she failed to protect one of her horse from the use of illegal spurs, which resulted in the animal being harmed. The allegations were waged against her by a stable employee, who dobbed her in to Racing NSW.

According to Racing NSW, Waugh and licensed jockey Mr Serg Lisnyy have been issued three separate charges each, following an inquiry by racing stewards.

The two were both charged over the use of illegal spurs, which Racing NSW said “were not blunt and not approved,” and were used “in a manner that mistreated the horse and resulted in Tarsus [the horse] sustaining injuries to its off side flank region”.

Waugh has been charged with failure to exercise reasonable care to prevent cruelty, failure to report a suspected breach and improper conduct towards the employee who reported the mistreatment of the racehorse. While the jockey, Lisnyy is charged with committing an act of cruelty, use of illegal spurs and use of spurs in an excessive or improper manner.

The Sydney Morning Herald reported that Waugh told close confidantes that she will deny the accusations at a Racing NSW inquiry, which will be held on May 20.

According to The Sydney Morning Herald, Waugh was not present at the Wyong trackwork session on March 20, when Tarsus was said to have sustained the injuries. It’s believed she was at her Central Coast farm where she homes several rescue animals.

Lisnyy will also be fighting the charges against him. “I don’t think the charges are right,” he told the paper. “They were normal spurs and similar to ones used by kids at pony club. I will be protesting my innocence and these charges are not good for business.”

Waugh, who has over 30 years of experience in the industry, is now one of New South Wales’ biggest non-metropolitan trainers. The last few years have seen Waugh experience one of the best seasons of her career with her horses winning $1.4 million in prize money in the 2020-21 campaign. In all her years in the industry, she’s never had a single animal cruelty charge against her.