It's hard enough admitting an error - it's even more difficult when the admission has to be made public.

The essence of good PR (and client and media relations) is honesty - and providing a full and frank disclosure as soon as practicable after the event.

Despite the theory it is fair to say that you don't often see people step up to the plate and openly admit a major error - or what they have done to rectify the problem going forward.

Many companies could therefore learn a lot from the following email from Michael Maroney.

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Dear Client,

As you are aware, I was forced to stand Andrew Scott down as my training partner recently and now racing’s officialdom in New Zealand have followed my actions by disqualifying Andrew until July 31 of this year.

Andrew made an error of judgment and falsified an application for blinkers for a stable runner and then provided false information to the powers that be during an investigation. This is out of character for Andrew and I am confident he will be able to put this behind him and conduct himself within the rules of racing once he is relicensed.

It is just unfortunate that, in not admitting to a genuine and minor mistake, a $400 fine for the partnership has turned into a black mark against his career.

Andrew has been my training partner in New Zealand for five and a half racing seasons in which time we have achieved considerable success culminating in dual Classic success this year and three Group 1 winners in total so far this term. Ballymore Stables also currently heads the prizemoney list.

Much of this comes down to Andrew’s excellent application of my training methods in my absence but he has also had the backing of a good team behind him and one of these, my brother Paul, has always been visible in a management role for the stable and will now step into the breach as my training partner for the remainder of the season.

Paul has been heavily involved with the training of horses since the early 1970s when he worked for Dave O’Sullivan, and following that with my stable from its inception, so he is well capable of implementing our successful system. He has always been in an overseeing role as another set of eyes for me, and much of the programming and racing of our team over the past five seasons has been framed around Paul’s advice.

Paul will now be your point of contact and is freely available to discuss your horse and its progress. His numbers are +64 7 888 5446 (day/night) and 021 941 429 (mobile). He will also be in charge of providing pre and post race reports, mainly via email where possible. I am sure you will value the depth of these reports which Paul has been providing to his own client base for a number of years.

Finally, I would like to assure you that Andrew will still have a role as my training partner once he has served his disqualification. During that time he will be educating our recent New Zealand yearling purchases based at JK Farm so he will have a head start in assessing our juvenile crop for next season.

Yours faithfully,

Michael Moroney

Senior Trainer – Ballymore Stables