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Luke Comer

jinnyj

Senior Jockey
Joined
Jan 8, 2004
Messages
5,156
Well he’s in a bit of trouble isn’t he! Three year ban and fines of up to £840k! Horses testing positive for steroids. I’d ban him for life personally.
 
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Yes, and it's not as if he's a young trainer trying to force his way through the ranks. Stuff like this makes you wonder how long he's been doing it and how often he's got away with it. I'd hope the ban makes him decide to retire.
 
Yes, and it's not as if he's a young trainer trying to force his way through the ranks. Stuff like this makes you wonder how long he's been doing it and how often he's got away with it. I'd hope the ban makes him decide to retire.


Don't take it personally but that's some load of bollocks -do you know anything about his background.
 
I accept that I don't know anything about his background, Luke, but it is a fact that he is not young. He's maybe had to struggle throughout his training career but now he's been caught doping and in these situations I [personally - perhaps I should have used "me" instead of "you" in my post] can't help but wonder how long he's been cheating for.

I think the same of every trainer who is caught.
 
Self made billionaire Luke Comer who has been training no hopers since Barry's Run took on Generous and Suave Dancer in the 1991 Irish Derby trains as a hobby -for years he would be on the galops on a Monday morning before flying to London and working flat out for the week before returning on a Friday afternoon to spend time with his horses.
For years he bought Ballydoyle rejects who were spectacularly useless with the exception of Chimes At Midnight who was placed in a Leger and if I'm correct won a Grade 1 at Belmont.
In recent years Jim Gorman did the training at a top class facility where no expense was spared.The Comers are also sponsors of the Irish Leger and trial.i read today that they have a 3 per cent strike rate over the last 5 years -that seems astronomically high to me.If they had 3successful winning gambles in that time I would be shocked.The stable representative speaks freely to RTV at Dundalk and is notoriously optimistic.
Tell me what the motivation is.
 
For a fact he made his money as a plasterer in London -worked like a lunatic -got the job done faster than anyone else.Employed men from his part of the world -paid them fairly and everyone made loads of money.The business expanded into Europe and he started buying supermarkets and airports.Yet we are to believe after 30years of throwing money at horses he suddenly wants to have them doped.
 
Self made billionaire Luke Comer who has been training no hopers since Barry's Run took on Generous and Suave Dancer in the 1991 Irish Derby trains as a hobby -for years he would be on the galops on a Monday morning before flying to London and working flat out for the week before returning on a Friday afternoon to spend time with his horses.
For years he bought Ballydoyle rejects who were spectacularly useless with the exception of Chimes At Midnight who was placed in a Leger and if I'm correct won a Grade 1 at Belmont.
In recent years Jim Gorman did the training at a top class facility where no expense was spared.The Comers are also sponsors of the Irish Leger and trial.i read today that they have a 3 per cent strike rate over the last 5 years -that seems astronomically high to me.If they had 3successful winning gambles in that time I would be shocked.The stable representative speaks freely to RTV at Dundalk and is notoriously optimistic.
Tell me what the motivation is.

Thanks for the bio, Luke. I really had no idea about his back story but I have to throw the question back at you: what is the motivation for doping?

Horses are doped either to stop them or 'help' them.

And if training is just a pastime for him, it makes it all the more difficult to understand and it's not as if it appears to be a one-off random mistake by someone further down the food chain.

Having survived more than one malicious accusation in the workplace in my career, I fully support the principle of innocent until proven guilty and it would seem there is enough evidence for the authorities to find for the latter.

It's the authorities that are telling us he's doped some. They should publish the evidence.

If a husband, for example, cheats on his wife after 30 years of marriage and claims it was a 'mistake' or a 'one-off', how likely is it that she'll believe it? She's likely to wonder 'how long has that been going on'?

(I say that as someone who was confided to by an acquaintance - church-going pillar of society, etc etc - that he'd been unfaithful for DECADES without his wife knowing (or if she did know or suspect she never said anything).)

Again, I appreciate the back story. Makes it all the more of a shame.
 
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Years ago I was at a funeral in Lindon in the company of a property developer-Luke Comers name was mentioned and I said he was some idiot only to be shot down immediately.
I was told that he was incredibly hard working and wealthy but he needed to be careful about the taxman due to his horse racing interests being in the public domain.This was before the shopping centres,airports, stud farms and football clubs.
Regarding motivation in my opinion there isn't any -I will be amazed if this isn't a case of negligence or human error.This stains a reputation for integrity and hard work.What did he have to gain -were any of the horses doped before a prestigious race.
 
Difficult to think of horses getting doped with steroids by accident.

Thursday 14th September, 2023 Luke Comer banned for three years and facing huge legal bill
By PA Sport Reporters
Trainer Luke Comer has been handed a three-year ban and faces costs in excess of €755,000 following an Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board hearing.

The handler was found to have breached two rules in relation to 12 of his horses testing positive for methandienone and methyltestosterone, steroids that are classified as Prohibited At All Times (PAAT) substances.

A hair sample taken from He Knows No Fear – a 300-1 winner in 2020 – after finishing fourth in the Trigo Stakes at Leopardstown in October 2021 returned a positive result, with out of competition hair testing taking place on that horse and 11 others the following month.

They all returned positive results, with a nine-day hearing subsequently taking place in May this year.

While Comer “acknowledged the presence of the prohibited substances” on the first day of the hearing, he “categorically denies that either he or any of his staff were involved in doping the animals”, according to the IHRB report into the case.

Comer suggested “environmental contamination” could be to blame, pointing to the possibility of contaminated hay, but the Committee found evidence on that idea “difficult” to evaluate while the handler also conceded “an employee could have accidently caused contamination” or a “disgruntled employee could have interfered with the horses”, although there was no evidence to support either theory.

The Referrals Committee underlined Comer had not been charged in breach of Rule 273 (i) which concerns “any person who administers or attempts to administer or connives at the administration to a horse of any prohibited substance” and added Comer had spent an “enormous sum of money” in an attempt to establish the source of the drugs.

However, it said that “after considering a great deal of evidence” it was “unable to say, on the balance of probability, how the horses came to test positive for the PAAT substances”.

The Committee described the case as “quite unprecedented”, concluding it warranted a three-year suspension of Comer’s licence, beginning on January 1.

The handler was fined €5,000 in relation to He Knows No Fear’s positive test and a further €5,000 in respect of each of the 11 horses.

Comer, who “maintains he is not guilty of any misconduct”, was also found to have acted in “a manner which is prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct or good regulation of horseracing”, for which he was fined €20,000 based on the large number of horses which tested positive and the “reputational damage” to the sport.

He was also ordered to pay 80 per cent of costs incurred by the IHRB in prosecuting the matter – a figure estimated to be in the region of €755,000.
 
Except that there were 12 horses that tested positive for steroids? That’s quite a lot imo!

Hes claiming that it’s environmental contamination which is a new one on me and also that he only spends three months of the year in Ireland so his staff oversee the feeding and general running of the yard. How on Earth is he allowed to train under those conditions.l

Hes also been in trouble in 2017 for several breaches of his licence.
 
Except that there were 12 horses that tested positive for steroids? That’s quite a lot imo!

Hes claiming that it’s environmental contamination which is a new one on me and also that he only spends three months of the year in Ireland so his staff oversee the feeding and general running of the yard. How on Earth is he allowed to train under those conditions.l

Hes also been in trouble in 2017 for several breaches of his licence.

That makes it seem more like ineptitude rather than something sinister.
 
Except that there were 12 horses that tested positive for steroids? That’s quite a lot imo!

Hes claiming that it’s environmental contamination which is a new one on me and also that he only spends three months of the year in Ireland so his staff oversee the feeding and general running of the yard. How on Earth is he allowed to train under those conditions.l

Hes also been in trouble in 2017 for several breaches of his licence.

You'd need to be spending less than 181 days a year at home lest you become domiciled for tax purposes.
 
That makes it seem more like ineptitude rather than something sinister.

I'd concur. It makes no sense that Mr Comer himself was directly involved. There is no logical value. I suspect that's why he fought so hard (and it cost him a week's pocket money).

It can only be that the relevant authority sees him as culpable (as the trainer), and has to make an example, while likely knowing that he probably didn't actually do it.

We probably don't have all the info, one way or another.

*Aside* If there really was no one in charge for 75% of the year, it would seem possible that some other party may have been nefariously involved, but you'd have to think that possibility has already been investigated.
 
I dunno what’s to be bamboozled about. 12 horses have tested positive for steroids which are prohibited substances. Trainer has to carry responsibility. Full stop.
 
They are not questions that need to be answered. Like doping in all spheres of sport it’s always “not me guv” and always it does turn out to be “was you guv” unless there’s technicality they can dredge up. It’s the scourge of the age.
 
It's very possible that others stood to gain from the improvement of horses. Luke Comer in my opinion is highly unlikely to have done this himself. However it's his name on the license and whether he did or not, he's responsible. Being absent from the yard for 5 days a week left him vulnerable, and also would have significantly harmed his defense.

I'm sure in the course of his investigation he'll be trying to find out who is responsible though, and I'm not sure they'll want to be in the country when he finds out.

The other issue this raises is where the steroids came from. I don't buy into the feed or hay issue either. For it to be significant enough it would be traced, and Comer has spent some serious money trying to investigate that avenue, coming up blank.

We've had the Jim Bolger accusations, and I don't think any of us have dismissed what was claimed there. I think this perhaps conveniently shows that the HRI are doing something and acting, while not exploding a bomb that racing might not recover from.

A slightly different question. Does anyone know if testing is done in Pointing in Ireland? Or are the Point yards randomly tested? What about the breeders and pinhookers? How far does the testing regime reach?
 
They are not questions that need to be answered. Like doping in all spheres of sport it’s always “not me guv” and always it does turn out to be “was you guv” unless there’s technicality they can dredge up. It’s the scourge of the age.

Au contraire. These questions profoundly need to be answered if we are to push past the symptoms of the disease and get to the root cause.

Question #1. When do we implement a regulation that a trainer has to be resident at/proximate to his yard for ~280 days of the year?
Question #2. Cui Bono?
 
Au contraire. These questions profoundly need to be answered if we are to push past the symptoms of the disease and get to the root cause.

Question #1. When do we implement a regulation that a trainer has to be resident at/proximate to his yard for ~280 days of the year?
Question #2. Cui Bono?

Bang on the money.
 
Au contraire. These questions profoundly need to be answered if we are to push past the symptoms of the disease and get to the root cause.

Question #1. When do we implement a regulation that a trainer has to be resident at/proximate to his yard for ~280 days of the year?
Question #2. Cui Bono?

Fair enough, but the rule is that if it happens in your yard, you are responsible.
 
Fair enough, but the rule is that if it happens in your yard, you are responsible.

Unequivocally agree, BJ. And you should be compelled to be in attendence at your yard.

Training racehorses is not like building mobile phones. You can't own the brand and outsource the manufacturing.
 
Like Eddie, this affair has me bamboozled.

I don't dispute the IHRB findings, or that Luke Comer has to take the rap for them, but I am at a loss to explain what has happened.

Comer sponsors the Irish St Leger and St Leger trial, and I think other companies owned by him are also putting money into racing, and all the horses in his stable are owned by him. So, even though his training operation has not been noticeably successful, he is nevertheless a big enough fish for the Irish authorities to be taking out.

I don't have much to add to what has already been said, but I do recall there being an issue with his yard and licence a few years ago. I think conditions were imposed, including having to appoint a suitable person to run the yard because of his frequent absences. I can't recall, and google searches are swamped by the latest news.

And by the way, how have the IHRB managed to run up 840k worth of costs pursuing this? That comes to 70k per horse involved!
 


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