Nicky Henderson Found Guilty

It's arguable that Burke's iniquities were very different from Henderson's - There is quite a feeling that Main misled him, and that unlike Burke there was no intention to gain a false advantage, eps so far as punting is concerned

It's certainly true though that Henderson is 'Establishment' and Burke is not
 
Alan Lee in The Times


For Nicky Henderson, a paragon in his racing parish, a blueblood trainer with owners to match, it is difficult to envisage any greater indignity than the ordeal from which he will emerge finally this weekend. “It made me feel like a common criminal,” he said yesterday. “It was the worst experience I've ever had. Just terrifying.”
He was speaking of the disciplinary hearings in early summer, at which he was deemed in breach of four rules of racing. A banned substance was involved, and a horse owned by the Queen named Moonlit Path. Henderson suffered a fine of £40,000 and a three-month suspension of runners from his mighty Lambourn stable. How much more his business and reputation might suffer was a fear to fuel his nightmares.
You would not have known it yesterday. As the first rains of autumn cleared the Lambourn Downs, Henderson was bright-eyed and ebullient as he watched third lot canter up his all-weather gallop. No hint of any dip in the appetite of the trainer, much less the quality of his string.
Binocular, Punjabi and Zaynar streamed past, the rich hurdling prizes of winter awaiting them. Then a new young horse made him smile. “He's by Bollin Eric and, rather amusingly, he has been named Morecambe,” Henderson said. “He's one of the Queen's.”


So that was one pregnant question answered. The Queen may not have been amused by the proceedings in which she found herself unwittingly embroiled but she has not added to Henderson's punishment. Nor has any other patron of Seven Barrows. Indeed, Henderson has not lost a single owner through this imbroglio and now finds himself with 150 horses - more than he has had in 32 years of training.
“It was obviously an extra worry that this happened to a horse of the Queen's,” he agreed. “It was bound to create more publicity and the Queen doesn't want to be reading those sort of things.” What was said between owner and trainer must remain private but Morecambe is still here and so, too, are Barbers Shop and Gold Award, the royal flagbearers.
Henderson will be 60 next year but can still look boyish. Constantly fidgeting and fretting, he is also endearingly prone to moist-eyed emotion. It assailed him now as he recalled the rallying of his clan after a conviction that must have tested the confidence of many.
“Once it was over, the amazing thing was the support we had, the letters. It was just unbelievable. Owners, mates, staff, they were all incredibly supportive. Do you know, I've probably never had a better team of horses but I've certainly never had better staff and nobody could have better owners.”
Key staff remain in place. Indeed, Tom Symonds, the vital young assistant whose absence from the hearings dismayed the British Horseracing Authority legal team, has had his value illustrated by elevation to desk space in the office previously occupied only by Henderson and his long-serving secretary, Rowie Rhys Jones.
There has been one casualty. James Main, the vet who administered the tranexamic acid to Moonlit Path but refused to give evidence, no longer works for the yard. Henderson sighed lengthily and confirmed: “We have no dealings now. James has been a mate for a very long time but we felt the need to make changes to our veterinary procedures this season.”
But there is no further hint of apportioned blame. “I'm not going into who did what and who shouldn't have done what. I'm not throwing bricks.”
Aside from indulging himself with his beloved fishing and shooting. Henderson has put his obligatory furlough to businesslike use. A new barn of stables has been added, a new surface laid on the gallop. His suspension ends in time for racing at Ffos Las on Sunday and Henderson hopes to have a runner in the opening mares' hurdle.
He is optimistic that his appearance will not be greeted any differently than before. “I'd be disappointed if that happens,” he said slowly. “Nobody can say all this hasn't happened, or that we didn't do wrong. But we'd obeyed the rules faithfully for 30-odd years and then something got into a horse's system that shouldn't have been there. What I can categorically say is that nobody was trying to cheat.”
While anxious not to rehash the inquiry, Henderson is insistent that the substance was not intended to stop Moonlit Path bleeding internally, thereby improving her performance. “The drug doesn't do that. It clots a bleed and lessens the damage to the horse - that was our only intention. But we won't use it again. No-one will now.”
There is a shudder in his voice as he recalls his feelings during the lengthy hearings. “It had been hanging over me a long time and was without doubt the worst experience I've ever had. It was really horrendous. The grilling and the pounding went on so long.
“It was heavy stuff, really very intimidating. I felt I was being treated like a criminal and I know some will say that is what I am. I'm equally aware that a lot of people think we got off extremely lightly but I don't share that view because, although we were found guilty of it, there was no intention of enhancing performance.
“That was where the shock element came in, that was the big blow. It's all very sad but I hope my reputation is not damaged beyond repair because I've now got a conviction on my otherwise clean licence.”
It looks increasingly unlikely. Henderson is, if anything, more popular than ever as a trainer and, with the enviable artillery at his disposal, things are likely to return rapidly to normal. Or even better.
Last season, he broke 100 winners and £2 million prize money for the first time. Only Paul Nicholls won more. With the best seasoned hurdlers around, exciting chasers such as Punchestowns and Mad Max and a group of novice hurdlers led by Oscar Whisky and Bellvano, could he become champion again?
“I don't think it's possible to beat Paul,” he said. “But it would be silly to pretend I don't have the desire.”
 
Glad to have him back in time for the winter and have utmost respect for the man. He always strikes me as someone who cares about his horses welfare. Rules were broken but he is clearly is not a cheat and the punishment fitted the crime I think.
 
Good luck to him - he's flouted the system and got away with it. Congratulations Nicky - at a time when drugs are rife in sport the British Horseracing seems to think it's exempt.

As has been mentioned by others unless you're making major profit from gambling (Backing or laying) the authorities don't want to know. I've asked elsewhere for a list of what the BHA test for only to be told it's a number of substances "including anabolic steroids".
 
It's pretty much everything!! Same as for jockeys; even over the counter painkillers can return a positive test.

You've become exceptionally cynical for one so young, Martin!! You've been in the bookmaking industry for too long already.....!
 
They should test a few of the jocks at Cheltenham!! Would be interested in the results. The authorities choose who and when they want to test people so it is open to huge amounts of subjectivity and as a result there are always going to be those saying they don't do enough. The henderson case highlights that while we all take the high moral ground in the fight against drugs, when we get the wrong result we try to find a way around it. Take the Irish gov and the lisbon treaty.....a referendum is great until it gives you the wrong answer and then you just have another one until you get the right answer. That's the way it is.
 
It might just be since I read "Ringers and Rascals" by David Ashforth though :lol:

On a more sober note (from last nights post) I trust that the BHA are cleaning up racing and good luck to them and all who play with a straight bat so to speak. It's certainly cleaner than other sports :)
 
Bloodnok - nobody can now say that NH is a 'cheat', but all trainers must sign off on all medications administered to their horses, whether it's by the vet, themselves, or their head grooms. They are given a medications sheet by the BHA and they must fill in date and time administered, quantity of medication, name of medication, the horse's name, the reason for it, and then they must SIGN IT. Omitting just one detail can result in a fine of £300 from the BHA. Omitting entire lines not only mounts up, but puts up a red flag, too.

It's no defence to say you didn't know what your vet was giving your charges. You're acting on behalf of the owner, and the owner has the right to know what his vet fees are for. You're also accountable to the BHA, who will definitely want to know not only why you failed to sign off on the medication, but why it didn't even appear on your medications sheet. You're a very strange trainer indeed if you don't ask your vet what he's giving your animals, especially if it's a drug with which you're not (one assumes, as it was banned) familiar. You're then a very careless trainer if you fail to file its details on the mandatory drugs chart.

At least the case will, one assumes, ensure that the Henderson yard is more careful in future, and that other trainers who've been chucking in the odd banned substance and forgetting to enter up their charts properly will, perhaps, think twice before continuing to do so.
 
I agree krizon and as you say in your last paragraph if NH and other trainers are more careful in future then the fine and ban along with the embarassing publicity has done it's job in my view. I know others may feel the ban, coming when it did in summer was effectively pointless for this trainer and they have a point, but I still feel the punishment was about right.
 
From an article by Greg Wood in today's Guardian.

James Main, the vet at the centre of the doping inquiry which saw Nicky Henderson banned from making entries for three months last summer, will face a full disciplinary hearing into his role in the case early in the new year.
Main refused to attend the British Horseracing Authority's hearing into the case of Moonlit Path, who was injected with tranexamic acid, a banned blood-clotting agent, a few hours before she was due to make her racecourse debut. Henderson, her trainer, was also fined £40,000 but, since the BHA does not regulate vets, it could not compel Main to attend the hearing. The panel's written findings registered its frustration at his absence.
Main resigned from two BHA committees – the veterinary committee and the counter-analysis committee – following the hearing, while the BHA passed the detailed findings from its inquiry to the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons, the profession's regulator, in July 2009.
While Main has offered no public comment on the case, the news that the RCVS has finally decided that he has a serious charge to answer means that his long silence will finally be broken. The hearing, likely to take place at the RCVS's headquarters in London, is scheduled to start on 14 February.
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I'm surprised that Mr Main was not warned off by the BHA based on the findings of their own enquiry, but now he has to answer to his professional body.
 
I wonder if the BHA decided to drop any proceedings on their part, provided the RCVS took up the baton of disciplinary hearings? I see they've provided the College with their own detailed findings. Perhaps they thought that as they'd probably have to sub poena him to attend their own meetings, plus hire an expensive vet or vets to grill him expertly, it was less expensive and went directly to the core of professional conduct if the College undertook the issue.

I imagine it will result in Mr Main looking for alternative employment in the Spring, which can only be a good thing for racing.

I was in a taxi a day ago and the issue of horse-racing arose, with the driver's second question being "Do you think that racing is bent?" If that's one of the first things the general public might want to ask, and the truthful answer will have to be, "Yes, in parts there are rogues, just as there are in other professional sports", then the more we supporters can point to the rogues being rooted out, the better.
 
Vet admits injecting
Queen's horse at hearing

By Paul Eacott 0:01AM 15 FEB 2011
JAMES MAIN, the vet at the centre of the inquiry that resulted in Nicky Henderson being fined and banned frommaking entries for three months in 2009, pleaded guilty on Monday to a charge of injecting the Queen's Moonlit Path with tranexamic acid on the morning of its racecourse debut and in doing so knowing that he was in breach of the rules of racing.
Main, the vet most closely associated with Henderson's yard from 1982 up until the timeof the incident, denied six other charges at a disciplinary inquiry held by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London, among them dishonestly concealing the injection in his clinical records and "disgraceful conduct in a professional respect".
The charges were read out to the committee at the start of the hearing yesterday by Alison Foster QC, representing the RCVS.
Main's legal representative Kieran Coonan QC said his client admitted the first charge, which is a breach of rule 221 B (i).
The committee then heard at length evidence from the first expert witness, Professor Tim Morris, the BHA's director of equine science and welfare. Morris told the committee that on the day ofracing, horses can only have water and their normal feed.
He said: "The BHA rules are such that it is clear it [any substance] must not be given on the day of the race and must not be present on the day of the race, if the intention is to affect the racing performance or in the knowledge that racing performance could be affected."
Moonlit Path finished sixth of ten, having been sent off a 16-1 chance, some 116 lengths behind her stablemate, the odds-on favourite Ravello Bay.
Morris also said that he believed that the use of TA could help Moonlit Path, a known bleeder, or any other horses susceptible to exercise-induced pulmonary haemorrhage to recover from any illeffects if they were injected after the race if permission was granted from the BHA.
He also said that he felt the use of the drug in UK horseracing was "relatively uncommon" as there have only been two positive tests for it.
Although interviewed as part of the BHA probe into the positive drug test provided by Moonlit Path, who was injected with the banned blood-clotting agent TA before her race at Huntingdon on February 19, 2009, Main did not attend the BHA disciplinary inquiry despite, in the panel's view, having "potentially crucial evidence to give."
He subsequently resigned from two BHA committees, but it was only after a lengthy investigation into the findings of the BHA inquiry, which were forwarded to the RCVS in July 2009, that it was announced charges had been brought against him.
Main, who is a partner at O'Gorman, Slater, Main and Partners, the Newbury-based practice whose clients include many leading racing yards in the area, could be suspended for up to two years by the RCVS or struck off from the register of vets if found in breach of their rules.
The hearing, which is expected to last six days, continues on Tuesday when Henderson is scheduled to give evidence.
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'Staff member must have known drug was banned' - Nicky Henderson

By Paul Eacott 8:11PM 15 FEB 2011
NICKY HENDERSON on Tuesday said a member of his staff must have been aware that the use of the drug tranexamicacid on raceday was contrary to the rules of racing as he insisted he himself was unaware that doing so was a breach of regulations.
Henderson was giving evidence on day two of a disciplinary inquiry held by the Royal College of Veterinary Surgeons in London into the role of veterinary surgeon James Main in an incident that resulted in the trainer being fined and banned from making entries for three months last year.
Main, who on Monday admitted injecting the mare Moonlit Path, owned by the Queen, with 20mg of the banned blood-clotting agent on the morning of her debut at Huntingdon on February 19, 2009, could be given a suspension of up to two years by the RCVS or struck off from the register of vets if found in breach of their rules. He denies six other charges.
The committee heard evidence that the injection was not recorded in the yard’s medical book, which contained a blank entry save for some scribbling out.
Henderson said that at the time neither he nor Main knew that to give such treatment on a raceday was against the BHA rules but accepted that a member of staff at his Seven Barrows yard in Upper Lambourn must known this.
Explaining the absence in the medical book of a record of the injection – which was written on an invoice as a pre-race check – Henderson said: “Somebody must have been aware of the fact that it should not have been done.”
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Is Nicky admitting that he's not really in charge? "I'm just client liaison, guv. The boy Simmonds looks after the horses."
 
A repulsive piece of cowardly dodging. Taking no personal responsibility, he appears to be abdicating his position as a trainer to that of bemused outsider. He doesn't deserve the loyalty of his staff. His vet would know perfectly well, as one attending to racehorses, what medications are and aren't permitted during training. You want staff loyalty and respect? Then show it to them first. It makes tougher bans on other trainers look partisan, if not vindictive, or his far too lenient.
 
I thought it was deplorable that NJH landed Tom Symonds in it at the BHA inquiry while Tom was prevented from attending to give his side of the story. I believe Tom is due to give evidence at Main's "trial" so it will be most interesting to hear what he has to say. Will he be prepared to take the rap on behalf of his boss?
 
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You know, I was always advised that when you're so far down a hole, it's best to stop digging..... Henderson and Co are using a fecking JCB !!


http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/nicky-henderson-moonlit-path-ravello-bay-henderson-staff-knew-they-were-breaking-rules/819788/top/

I particularly like:

"Invited to explain his actions, Main said Moonlit Path had "a chronic history of bleeding" and that he gave her TA "because the trainer was concerned about the welfare of this horse and I was concerned about the welfare of this horse."

How about actually not racing the horse being in its best interests welfare-wise ?
 
Wonder if they are going to try the "well it didnt win,so we cant have been improving its performance" line, in a not dis-similar way to "my horse didnt win me any money so it doesnt matter that I backed my own horse" that proved so useful last year....

as for the vet in question - to claim that he didnt know is ridiculous beyond belief, but then hes not one for rules if they dont suit.
 
Songsheet said:
I particularly like:

"Invited to explain his actions, Main said Moonlit Path had "a chronic history of bleeding" and that he gave her TA "because the trainer was concerned about the welfare of this horse and I was concerned about the welfare of this horse."
Click to expand...

I prefer "Main...denied the phrase "pre-race check" was entered in his own records as a way of concealing the use of TA. Main argued instead it was "terminology" fully understood by his trainer clients."

There's been little mention of Main's roster of clients since this broke, but it's fairly bleeding (pun intended) obvious that others in Lambourn have been doing something not entirely dissimilar.
 
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