rorydelargy
At the Start
For clarification:
17. To help in evaluating the evidence, it is necessary at the outset to record some undisputed facts and features of the case:-
(i) TA is a prohibited substance because it acts upon the blood system of a horse. This is obvious to anybody who knows that it aids blood coagulation and who reads the general definition in paragraph 2 of Instruction C1 with any care. And it is made even more obvious to anybody who reads the concluding part of that paragraph, which says:-
“For the purposes of clarity Prohibited Substances include:-
….. substances affecting blood coagulation”.
(ii) TA had been used for some time by Henderson. It was not possible to put an exact date on when he first used it, but it had been for some years before 19 February 2009. Nor was it possible from the evidence before the Panel to say how frequently it had been used, but it was accepted that it was typically given to horses which Henderson thought might benefit from it on the morning of their race.
(iii) Henderson said he ordered its use on MOONLIT PATH when doing afternoon stables 18 February 2009. The order was given in the presence of his head lad and his two assistants, Ben Pauling and Tom Symonds. If the instruction was given by Henderson during afternoon stables, it is likely to have been the day before 17 February because the practice diary referred to below was not modified after 1435 on 18 February. This detail is not significant in the greater scheme of things, however.
(iv) That order was transmitted to Mr Main’s practice (probably by Tom Symonds, suggested Henderson). The diary software page maintained by Mr Main’s practice was last modified at 1435 hours on 18 February and records that he was booked to visit Seven Barrows the next day for “1 x dycenene”. Dycenene is the brand name for another substance that can act as an aid to blood coagulation, called etamsylate.
(v) The Panel was told by Henderson that “Dycenene” was ordered because this was the substance originally recommended to him as a possible treatment for horses at risk of bleeding, and that is what Henderson and his staff asked for in cases where he thought it might help. But TA under the Cyklokapron brand name came to be the drug which Mr Main used in preference to Dycenene.
(vi) The Panel raised the question whether there could be any breach of Rule 200 by Henderson when he ordered the administration of Dycenene, yet Mr Main supplied and injected a different substance (TA), which is used for the same purpose though it has a different pharmacological effect. Mr Norris QC for Henderson disowned any reliance on this argument, saying that when Henderson ordered Dycenene, he was meaning a drug which aided blood coagulation to assist recovery from bleeding. The Panel concluded that he was right to reject this approach – Dycenene was the “label” used by Henderson and his staff to signify a request to Mr Main to inject an aid to blood coagulation, and he used Cyklokapron, i.e. TA. Mr Main himself says as much in a statement he signed on 3 June 2009.
(vii) The Medication Book contains no record of the injection given by Mr Main on 19 February. Though the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of medication records lies with a trainer, the entries in the book maintained at Seven Barrows were generally made by one or other of the assistants, Tom Symonds or Ben Pauling. The book has two lines blank between entries for treatment of a horse on 17 February and of another horse on 19 February – blank save for a few largely undecipherable deleted words under the “horse identification” and “drug used” columns.
(viii) The “Animal History” maintained by Mr Main’s practice to record its treatments for MOONLIT PATH describes what happened on his visit to give the injection on 19 February as a “Pre Race Check”. The same description is given in the invoice addressed to Henderson dated 28 February 2009. Mr Main’s explanation for this (appearing in his signed statement of 3 June 2009) was that “Our training clients are aware that this equates to the injection of TA to the horse”.
17. To help in evaluating the evidence, it is necessary at the outset to record some undisputed facts and features of the case:-
(i) TA is a prohibited substance because it acts upon the blood system of a horse. This is obvious to anybody who knows that it aids blood coagulation and who reads the general definition in paragraph 2 of Instruction C1 with any care. And it is made even more obvious to anybody who reads the concluding part of that paragraph, which says:-
“For the purposes of clarity Prohibited Substances include:-
….. substances affecting blood coagulation”.
(ii) TA had been used for some time by Henderson. It was not possible to put an exact date on when he first used it, but it had been for some years before 19 February 2009. Nor was it possible from the evidence before the Panel to say how frequently it had been used, but it was accepted that it was typically given to horses which Henderson thought might benefit from it on the morning of their race.
(iii) Henderson said he ordered its use on MOONLIT PATH when doing afternoon stables 18 February 2009. The order was given in the presence of his head lad and his two assistants, Ben Pauling and Tom Symonds. If the instruction was given by Henderson during afternoon stables, it is likely to have been the day before 17 February because the practice diary referred to below was not modified after 1435 on 18 February. This detail is not significant in the greater scheme of things, however.
(iv) That order was transmitted to Mr Main’s practice (probably by Tom Symonds, suggested Henderson). The diary software page maintained by Mr Main’s practice was last modified at 1435 hours on 18 February and records that he was booked to visit Seven Barrows the next day for “1 x dycenene”. Dycenene is the brand name for another substance that can act as an aid to blood coagulation, called etamsylate.
(v) The Panel was told by Henderson that “Dycenene” was ordered because this was the substance originally recommended to him as a possible treatment for horses at risk of bleeding, and that is what Henderson and his staff asked for in cases where he thought it might help. But TA under the Cyklokapron brand name came to be the drug which Mr Main used in preference to Dycenene.
(vi) The Panel raised the question whether there could be any breach of Rule 200 by Henderson when he ordered the administration of Dycenene, yet Mr Main supplied and injected a different substance (TA), which is used for the same purpose though it has a different pharmacological effect. Mr Norris QC for Henderson disowned any reliance on this argument, saying that when Henderson ordered Dycenene, he was meaning a drug which aided blood coagulation to assist recovery from bleeding. The Panel concluded that he was right to reject this approach – Dycenene was the “label” used by Henderson and his staff to signify a request to Mr Main to inject an aid to blood coagulation, and he used Cyklokapron, i.e. TA. Mr Main himself says as much in a statement he signed on 3 June 2009.
(vii) The Medication Book contains no record of the injection given by Mr Main on 19 February. Though the ultimate responsibility for the accuracy and completeness of medication records lies with a trainer, the entries in the book maintained at Seven Barrows were generally made by one or other of the assistants, Tom Symonds or Ben Pauling. The book has two lines blank between entries for treatment of a horse on 17 February and of another horse on 19 February – blank save for a few largely undecipherable deleted words under the “horse identification” and “drug used” columns.
(viii) The “Animal History” maintained by Mr Main’s practice to record its treatments for MOONLIT PATH describes what happened on his visit to give the injection on 19 February as a “Pre Race Check”. The same description is given in the invoice addressed to Henderson dated 28 February 2009. Mr Main’s explanation for this (appearing in his signed statement of 3 June 2009) was that “Our training clients are aware that this equates to the injection of TA to the horse”.
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