Top Irish trainer facing drugs charges

It does Grey - if you register your horse out of training and move it out of the yard to canter etc. then you can give it whatever you want, then put it back "into training" so to speak 10 days before it runs and hey presto.

Martin
 
The Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer is facing eight charges over treatments and medicines allegedly found at his yard, South Lodge, Carrick-on-Suir, Co Tipperary, in January 2012.

Among the substances was the quantity of steroid Nitrotain, a 20ml bottle of a second performance enhancing drug, Ilium Stanabolic, a counterfeit antibiotic and medicines held without prescription, the court heard.

Fenton's trial will take place at Carrick-on-Suir District Court on October 23.

During a brief hearing at the courthouse this morning, Judge Terence Finn was told the state would be calling eight witnesses, some of whom will travel from overseas for the trial.

It is expected to last one day.

Defence barrister John Walsh, senior counsel, did not indicate how many witnesses he will call.

The prosecution is being brought in the name of Ireland's Minister for Agriculture for infringements of rules on animal remedies.

Fenton, 49, attended the short hearing in Carrick-on-Suir courthouse but did not make any comment.

He has had nine winners from 46 runners in the current Irish season.

In June, Judge Finn dismissed an application by defence lawyers that the charges were not being correctly brought as regulations had been amended between the date of the inspection and when summonses were issued in October 2013.

Defence lawyers had suggested at a previous hearing that the matter may end up in the High Court at a future date.

Mr Walsh told Judge Finn he had no issue with the District Court's jurisdiction to hear the case.

No plea has been entered.

At a previous hearing in the long-running case, prosecutors said it is the state's case that Fenton has accepted he was in possession of some banned animal remedies including steroids when his stables were searched more than two and a half years ago.

The antibiotics allegedly discovered at the stables include Engemycin 10%, Neomycin-Penicillin, and the counterfeit antibiotic, Marbocyl 10%, the court heard.
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Today's Irish Examiner reports that Pat Hughes has been found guilty of possessing unauthorised substances. He is brother of John Hughes, a Dept of Agriculture veterinary inspector who was found guilty of the same offence earlier this year.

Hughes convicted of possessing unauthorised animal remedies




Friday, October 03, 2014
horseRacingSilhouette2_large.jpg

By Conor Kane

The body which regulates horseracing in this country is to study the ramifications of a court judgement which yesterday saw former Irish Grand National and Royal Ascot winning-trainer Pat Hughes convicted of possessing unauthorised animal remedies.
Mr Hughes (72) of Fenniscourt Stud, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, pleaded not guilty yesterday at Carlow district court to eight charges of possession of the unauthorised remedies, including one charge of possessing stanozol, an anabolic steroid.

However, he was found guilty by Judge Eamon O’Brien and fined €€2,500 as well as being told to pay €€5,000 in legal costs and €€600 in expenses.

Mr Hughes is the trainer of two Irish Grand National winners, most recently Point Barrow in 2006, as well as a Wokingham Handicap winner (Time Machine) at Royal Ascot and a Sun Alliance Chase winner (Antarctic Bay) at the Cheltenham festival.

The case was taken by the Department of Agriculture following an unannounced inspection at Mr Hughes’s yard on February 2 of 2012.

Following the court hearing yesterday, a spokesman for the Turf Club said he had no comment to make, other than that the ruling and its ramifications will be “discussed” by the club’s officials.

Stanozol was described in court as being used for “building muscle mass” and was the product used by Ben Johnson before he was stripped of his Olympic 100m gold medal in 1988. There were three bottles found in a Portakabin on Mr Hughes’s property.

Other items found by three inspectors during their visit in 2012 were vetaglin, a painkiller; jurocyl which is a low dose of arsenic and used as an appetite stimulant; diurex which is a diuretic; aspegic powder which is similar to aspirin; AMP 5 which is used to dilate the blood vessels and “enhance performance”; VAM, a vitamin and mineral booster; and L-Carnitine which is an amino acid supplement.

None of the products is authorised for use on animals in this country.

A Department of Agriculture vet from the special investigations unit, Louis Riordan, said that on February 1 of 2012, Customs intercepted a package which was being imported into Ireland from Australia and contained a number of animal remedies. One of the names included on the invoice as a co-signee was Pat Hughes. A search warrant was then obtained from a judge in relation to Mr Hughes’s property.

He agreed under cross-examination that none of the products found on Mr Hughes’s premises exactly matched those found in the intercepted consignment, but said they were similar because they were “performance-enhancing”.

Another department vet, John McConville, said he visited the training yard on February 2 of 2012 with two colleagues and, while searching a Portakabin, found all eight items.

He agreed with the defence that the items could have been found by anyone and were not hidden away. He also agreed that all of the products were past their expiry dates, the stanozol having expired in February of 2011.

In his evidence, Mr Hughes said two of the products, vetaglin and aspegic powder, had been supplied by an Italian vet who used to treat his horses. He had never paid for them. Four of the products were placed in his car after a race meeting in 2006 by a vet from the west of Ireland, since deceased, who had bought them from a man from Northern Ireland but had never come back to collect them. He didn’t know how the stanozol had come to be in the Portakabin and he had “never” administered stanozol or any steroid to any of his horses.

Judge O’Brien found in favour of the State and said it was a “sad case”.

© Irish Examiner Ltd. All rights reserved
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From Brian O'Connor's blog on irishracing.com. I have to say I'm very disappointed at the pace at which things are moving in Ireland on this issue. There were promises last spring that new measures would be in place by the end of the year, but the working party to examine the issue has only just been assembled.

This time a year ago Irish racing's self-assurance in regard to doping was about to be blown out of the water. A day after Dunguib won the Boyne Hurdle at Navan came initial reports about his trainer Philip Fenton facing charges on possession of unlicensed medicines including anabolic steroids. Inevitably the initial focus was on Cheltenham and how Fenton possessed Ireland's big Gold Cup hope Last Instalment. But it's interesting to take more of a big-picture view a year later.

What can definitely be said is that comfortable assumptions about 'no evidence' being a definitive rebuttal to suspicions are long gone. So has much of the naivety about the island of saints and scholars somehow being above such things. There is also official recognition that it is in racing's self-interest here to be seen to root out cheats and on the surface this latest doping 'Task-Force' is another display of that official intent.

But it is hard to ignore the suspicion that some at the industry chalk face persist in dismissing the whole sorry episode as some hysterical media creation that can ultimately be ridden out before returning to reality. It's the classic thing of focussing on the symptom and not the problem and it simply isn't good enough. And it has to be seen to be not good enough.
That this much trumpeted Task-Force is only now being set up indicates how glacial the pace of change can be. And since the science into developing a systematic test which will determine not only the 'if' but the 'when' an animal has got banned substances is still some time away, concrete steps to meaningfully police the problem remain mostly theory. The positive is that official readiness to tackle the issue, and inculcate the necessary fear of being caught necessary to dissuade cheats from chancing their arm, appears at least on the surface to be in place. Maintaining that will to keep on top of what lurks under the surface will be the major test in future
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The setting up of a Drugs Task Force was first announced in early 2014 but did didn't get off the ground until near the end of that year. Since then its progress has been disappointing, to say the least, as this December update by Brian O'Connor in his irish-racing.com blog makes clear. Two years onthere seems to have been no progress made.


On the back of last year’s steroids controversy, a Drugs Task Force was set up to examine and report on the extent of any potential doping problem within the racing and bloodstock industries. Some of the great and the good were appointed to represent the various sectors under the chairmanship of the soon to be installed Turf Club senior steward Meta Osborne. That was a year ago and yet we’ve heard little or nothing about it since.
It was originally envisaged a report would be available in early summer, just as a review by the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s expert, Dr Terence Wan, of drug testing systems here, including the Lab used by the Turf Club for testing substances, was supposed to be ready for release in the spring. There’s been no public release of either, and barely a peep about it.

This time a year ago both HRI and the Turf Club issued a joint statement which stressed that “absolute priority” was to be given to tackling the drugs issue and that any necessary measures would be taken to maintain Ireland’s worldwide reputation in the bloodstock industry.

The Task Force was the headline, apparently a root-and-branch examination of what happens on the ground in order to try and restore credibility which had been badly knocked due to what occurred with the banned trainer Philip Fenton and the ‘warned off’ retired department of agriculture veterinary inspector, John Hughes, in particular.

The joint-statement took place in the context of tension between HRI and the Turf Club over various issues, including arguments over the financial arrangements involved in upgrading the BHP Lab in Limerick, and was signed off both by HRI chairman Joe Keeling and the Turf Club senior steward Neville O’Byrne.

It was correct to give it absolute priority. Racing’s reputation had taken a hammering, especially given the Turf Club’s apparent failure to properly police a problem which many suspected had had only its surface skimmed given the inability of racing’s regulators to even enter unlicensed premises, never mind any perception of a lack of will to meaningfully address an issue which goes to the heart of the industry’s credibility.

So it can be reasonably asked where this priority is now? Why the delay? Racing has been clapping itself on the back in terms of increased funding, new offshore betting revenue and the Curragh’s redevelopment. HRI’s chairman, Joe Keeling, has even announced the end of the recession which felt like news to a lot of people. But despite everything there’s still no sign of perhaps the most important document of all in 2015 even though it was supposed to have been completed months ago.
We don’t know if the problems which existed before still exist, or if things have improved. Are Irish racing’s drug-testing systems fit for purpose? Is the Lab properly resourced and up to speed on detecting what has to be detected? Is the bloodstock game clean as a whistle or is there an environment where cheats reckon it’s still worthwhile to take a chance and dope?

You would imagine in a €1 billion industry that the priority should be on restoring credibility as quickly and as convincingly as possible. Self-interest alone would dictate that a game particularly vulnerable to reputational damage from doping adopts a certain urgency in addressing the issue.
A valid counter-argument might be that it’s better to get things done right than quickly. However this is going on twice as long as it was supposed to, a delay which only provokes racecourse rumour, but more importantly holds an industry open to accusations that all those fine words of a year ago may have been little more than cosmetic.
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If they wanted to achieve something and genuinely find out how prevalent doping is in the industry as a whole they'd have appointed an independent Chairperson rather than an industry bod with a vested interest.

Martin
 
You're right, they don't seem to get how potentially lethal this issue could be for the credibility of the industry.
 
The other option is that they do get how potentially lethal this issue could be for the industry but are taking the early noughties UCI approach and the IAAF approach (and the BHA tbf) and just trying to be seen to be doing something.

Martin
 
What happens when Ireland win more than half of the Festival races again? Surely the lack of action here could raise the suspicion that Irish horses are getting more help than they should?

I'm not saying that's the case of course. This topic is hot news at the moment and I reckon Irish racing is horribly exposed. What if a high profile UK trainer made the claim? The fall out could be catastrophic for Irish racing.
 
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After announcing their intention in the wake of the Fenton case to take the issue of drug misuse seriously, the Irish Turf Club has been moving at a snail's pace, as we've remarked before on this thread. Jim Bolger is well entitled to be disappointed.


ITC to implement cobalt and milkshake testing

By richard forristal 7:26AM 22 SEP 2016

IRISH racing's failure to test for excessive levels of cobalt and TCO2 – more commonly known as milkshaking – which has been heavily criticised by leading trainer Jim Bolger, is going to be tackled as a priority, according to the Turf Club's head of anti-doping, Dr Lynn Hillyer.

However, Hillyer was reluctant to put a timescale on when the Turf Club will be in a position to begin testing for two substances recognised as having performance-enhancing qualities that are tested for in other major racing nations.
Asked yesterday about the shortcoming in testing procedures, Bolger stridently expressed his disappointment on the issue.

"As racing in Ireland is at least as good as anywhere else in the world, the testing should be right up there with the best international standards, and we are not at the moment," he said.
"From my point of view, I wouldn't be settling for anything less. I would be disappointed with where we are on it, and I'd also be concerned about horses coming into Ireland from other jurisdictions to race."

Worldwide issue

Trainers Mark Kavanagh and Danny O'Brien are involved in contentious appeals following elevated cobalt readings in Australia, where in March Peter Moody walked away from the sport after incurring a six-month suspension for an unintentional cobalt violation.

Given the revelation South Africa has also now recorded its first positive results for cobalt and the authorities have opted not to impose any penalties due to a lack of intent, exercising caution on the matter is to some degree understandable.
Cobalt is a trace mineral found in B vitamins that exists naturally in small quantities in horses. Similar to the well-known blood doping agent EPO, cobalt can increase red blood cells, which improves metabolic efficiency.
Likewise, increased TCO2 levels indicate alkalinisation or sodium bicarbonate loading. Alkalinisation can be used as a method of neutralising lactic acid, and it is also believed to help mask illegal drugs in post-race testing.
"Testing for cobalt is now straightforward," conceded Hillyer, who doubles as the Turf Club's chief veterinary officer.

"What is more challenging, and equally – if not more – important, is that the Turf Club, like other horseracing regulators around the world, has appropriate systems in place to be able to clearly advise participants about what is safe and what isn't, and to be able to act effectively in the event of transgression."
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Brian O'Connor gives the Turf Club tree another shake to try and stir the sloths and koalas sleeping in the branches into making some bit of progress on this issue:

<hgroup style="color: rgb(81, 81, 81); font-family: Georgia, "Times New Roman", Times, serif; font-size: 16px;">Bloodstock industry needs to get serious about anti-doping

Irish racing may be steroid-free, but simply declaring it so isn’t enough anymore

</hgroup><time title="about 14 hours ago" style="display: inline-block; padding-right: 10px;">about 14 hours ago</time>



Brian O'Connor
It’s now five years since six kilograms of the powerful anabolic steroid nitrotain was intercepted at Dublin Airport on its way to the retired Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector John Hughes.

Nitrotain builds muscle mass and improves a horse’s strength and stamina. It only takes a few days to excrete which makes it all but impossible to detect in any post-race dope test. The amount was described by one official as being of “commercial quantity”.

Also in 2012 agriculture inspectors found unauthorised animal medicines, including the steroid stanozol at the training establishment of Hughes’s brother, Pat, and a one-kilogram tub of nitrotain at the yard of leading trainer Philip Fenton.

Both Fenton and Pat Hughes were subsequently convicted in the district court. John Hughes pleaded guilty to possessing nitrotain.

It was a substantial blow to the reputation of Ireland’s world-renowned bloodstock industry, not least because racing’s integrity service appeared to be caught completely by surprise.
The Turf Club was left looking superfluous as State officials, armed with the ability to raid premises, uncovered a murky doping underworld wildly at odds with the glossy brochure presentation that the horse industry in this country likes to exhibit.

That gaping gaps in racing’s anti-doping regime might be exploited should have been no surprise to anyone; neither could it be a surprise that gaps existed. Yet the anti-doping culture of this billion-Euro industry appeared to be that no fuss equalled no problem, despite rational suspicions that any sport judged to be top of the table in terms of results could hardly be presumed to be relegation material when it came to darker practices.

Jurisdiction

The Turf Club has always had jurisdiction over yards where horses are trained. Many thoroughbreds, though, spend just as much time out of training as in. All begin their lives on stud farms which have always been unlicensed by racing’s regulatory body. Only State agencies can enter them and State agencies have plenty else to do.

John Hughes was subsequently disqualified from racing by the Turf Club for five years, having refused to reveal who his clients were. Fenton got a three-year disqualification. It finishes later this year. Time is passing, yet gaps in the fight against doping remain.

Racing’s major statement of intent on the back of the steroids controversies was an anti-doping task force comprised of all sectors of the thoroughbred industry, including breeders, trainers, owners and sales companies.

It was given “absolute priority” when set up at the end of 2014. It delivered its report – six months late – a year ago. The breadth of its ambition towards safeguarding the international reputation of Ireland’s thoroughbred industry was impressive.

However, the industry’s progress towards getting its shop in order continues to be glacially slow.

A central crux of the task force report was that protocols be set up between the Turf Club and the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association (ITBA) – which claims its membership own 90 per cent of foals born here – to allow drug testing on stud farms.

It is fundamental that thoroughbreds be liable for testing throughout their lives. Such traceability is taken for granted within the food industry. For a sport where reputation counts for so much, and the rewards for cheating can be so great, similar traceability should be a basic requirement.

In terms of basic self-interest it would seem logical then that no one should be more keen to put in place a testing framework which transparently backs up industry claims that it is clean than that industry itself.

However, despite some progress on other task force recommendations, the most fundamental aspect of that report – about implementing a structure which allows testing of a horse throughout its life – is still the basis of “ongoing discussions”, which include the issue of notice ITBA members should get from testers.

The ITBA originally wanted seven days’ notice. Now it says five will do.

Wild creatures

The argument is that breeders may not be home when testers arrive at their doorstep, or that time is needed to catch stock, a suggestion which makes one wonder what kind of wild creatures are around that it needs five days to catch them.

A more mundane consideration could be that a famously conservative sector simply needs time to adjust.

But whatever the excuse, it comes across as stalling. A doping system that forewarns when it is coming is meaningless. To even suggest it is ludicrous. It’s not worth discussing.
The ITBA insists there is no steroid problem in the breeding industry so there shouldn’t be a problem with Turf Club officials turning up unannounced to prove that. And that begs the question as to why this protocol isn’t up and running already.

This is a sector which has more to gain than anyone in being seen to protect the reputation of the Irish horse. It includes some of the heaviest and most influential hitters in the global horse game. So why is foot-dragging on an issue at the core of racing’s credibility allowed to persist?

Reputation can’t be presumed. It can be lost. So when racing as a whole can be perceived to be stalling on such a fundamental measure, it inevitably invites the question, why? And the more time drags, the greater the chance for vacuums which will be invariably filled by rumour and speculation.

The Irish bloodstock industry may indeed be steroid-free. But simply declaring it so isn’t enough anymore. One commercial supply of steroids was uncovered. It’s naive to simply presume it was a one-off.

Now the industry’s credibility demands it be seen to promptly and properly fight the doping fight. If it doesn’t, then another task force report will be seen to be making full steam towards that clogged up scrap-yard reserved for cosmetic exercises.
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Luke Comer fined for refusing stable inspection

Comer had refused permission for Turf Club officials to inspect his stables last month

<time title="13 minutes ago">13 minutes ago</time>
Brian O'Connor

The high profile property developer Luke Comer has been given a suspended six-month suspension of his licence to train racehorses, and fined €10,000 by the Turf Club, after he refused permission for officials from the regulatory body to inspect his stables in Kilternan last month.

At a Referrals Committee hearing chaired by Justice Tony Hunt, Comer was also ordered to pay €4,000 in costs. Comer apologised to the Turf Club officials who arrived to inspect his yard on March 22nd. They included the Turf Club’s chief veterinary officer, and head of anti-doping, Dr Lynn Hillyer.

The six-month suspension of Comer’s licence will only take effect if he fails to comply with Turf Club rules in the next six months. It was also agreed an inspection of Comer’s premises will take place and any issues arising will, if necessary, be put before the Referrals Committee.
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It sounds like Comer has been very lucky, I would have thought refusing an inspection was a more serious matter.
 
He used to train a lot of bad horses around the turn of the century. The exception was Chimes At Midnight, which was half decent and won the 2001 Curragh Cup in 2001. According to an Irish Field article last September he and his brother own 5,000 acres in the counties around Dublin. They also have 150 broodmares and a similar number of foals and plan to have about 50 horses in training this season.

The two brothers also sponsor the Irish St Leger under their Palmerstown House Estate banner, which I'm sure had no bearing whatever when it came to deciding how to deal with him.
 
I remember him running a 1000/1 shot behind Generous & Suave Dancer.When I lived in London I knew an above average property developer -the Comer name came up in a conversation -I called him a clown but I was left in no doubts that he is a very big fish worth hundreds of millions.I still don't get the agenda with the horses-it's possibly something he does for pure enjoyment/relaxation -there seems to be no interest in gambles or a commercially successful stud.
 
Fair play to Brian O'Connor for sticking with this issue. He now thinks in his latest irish-racing.com blog that an announcement on testing at stud farms is imminent, but like him I hope the ITBA has seen sense and backed down from their unacceptable position that breeders would get advance notice of tests.

...apparently agreement between the Turf Club and the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association on a protocol to allow drug testing on stud farms may finally be announced this week.
And it can hardly be said to be before time since it's almost a year and a half since such a protocol was a central recommendation of the Anti-Doping Task Force report. Central to any protocol though is the issue of notice that ITBA members get before any officials show up on their premises. There simply can't be any.
Over the last year the ITBA has changed its position on the number of days notice it wants its members to get. Apparently we were down to three days not so long ago. Maybe that demand has decreased even further since. But it doesn't matter. The idea of notice for drug-testing is off the wall nuts. Legitimising it in writing would make any protocol that includes it worse than useless. No horse is so wild that it requires days to be caught. No stud wall is so high it can't - and shouldn't - be scaled immediately. If everything really is right and proper then everyone involved should be eager to prove it. That's only good business sense.
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