Zarooni

Thanks for the link, Triptych. I'm copying the article onto the thread.


Lord Stevens appointed by Sheikh Mohammed to investigate equine doping revelations

Lord Stevens, the former Commissioner of the Metropolitan Police, is to undertake a second inquiry into Sheikh Mohammed’s global racing and endurance operations after it was revealed that stables and a private jet owned by the ruler of Dubai were targeted in drugs raids this summer.

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In the spotlight: Sheikh Mohammed has been linked with two seizures of unlicensed veterinary products this year Photo: GETTY IMAGES








By Pippa Cuckson

8:33PM BST 02 Oct 2013


The investigation will look into organisational structures, internal communication and veterinary practices throughout the Sheikh’s equine operations including his Darley breeding empire and Godolphin stable in Newmarket where trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was found to have given banned anabolic steroids to 22 of his horses.

“We will also study events surrounding the seizures at Stansted and Moorley Farm, including the chain of custody for the medications in question and their intended purpose,” Lord Stevens said.

The Sheikh’s wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, had already begun an internal investigation. When news of the raids broke three weeks ago, she issued staff directives setting out guidelines for auditing medical supplies, and requiring staff to uphold “the good name of the Maktoum family at all times”.

Lord Stevens’s corporate and intelligence investigation company Quest has already helped the Princess, in her role as president of the International Equestrian Federation, to set up the clean sport initiatives that formed the central plank of her FEI election manifesto in 2006.

The Princess’s proposals have largely been effective across the wider range of FEI equestrian sports, but endurance, especially in the United Arab ­Emirates where Sheikh Mohammed is the major player, continues to return a way-above-average number of positive dope tests.

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As Lord Stevens has now been hired to investigate alleged malpractice within Sheikh Mohammed’s personal sporting entities, lines of accountability could become complex.
Quest was already employed by the FEI to run its Equestrian Community Integrity Unit and more recently took on scrutineering the working practices of the Endurance Strategic Planning Group.
This is a five-man body set up by Princess Haya in July to address concerns about doping in endurance that predate the seizure of the unlicensed drugs from Sheikh Mohammed’s two properties.
Its members include Saaed Al Tayer, a senior employee of Sheikh Mohammed, and critics say his participation has made the FEI strategic group “non-neutral”. The group, chaired by British Equestrian Federation chief executive Andrew Finding, is due to present recommendations to the FEI general assembly in Montreux, Switzerland, next month.
To complicate matters further, Sheikh Mohammed’s endurance trainer, Jaume Punti Dachs, whose Newmarket yard was the subject of one of the drugs seizures, is a senior member of the endurance committee of the FEI.
The drugs seized by border officials and Defra are largely associated with endurance racing, in which sport anti-inflammatories and analgesics are a hot topic.
The British Horseracing Authority, still recovering from the doping scandal at Sheikh Mohammed’s Godolphin operation, has actively distanced thoroughbred racing from these events. However, Lord Stevens has emphasised that all Sheikh Mohammed’s sporting concerns, including the racing yards of Godolphin, will come in his remit.
He will look beyond events surrounding the drugs seizures “for a wide-ranging assessment of veterinary procedures and practices to determine whether they are in support of horse welfare and in keeping with all applicable laws and regulations.
Lord Stevens said: “Sheikh Mohammed is adamant that any evidence of violations of law or regulation in any jurisdiction should be shared with the appropriate authorities. Our primary focus is on preventing any future systemic failures. We will identify best practices and develop protocols and procedures to streamline and improve management and operations.
“Following my meeting with Princess Haya on Tuesday, I have begun assembling a team of experts for this task. We have agreed that we will not wait until the inquiry is finished to suggest any improvements that should be implemented more quickly.”
Lord Stevens’s previous involvement in sporting controversies has included an investigations into corruption in football transfers and cricket.
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John Hughes, brother of trainer Pat, convicted in court Thurs of possession of short acting anabolic steroids according to Irish Field today.
Rumoured a Sunday newspaper going to press with a story that steroids are "rife " in Irish racing. All I know is Apache Gold got none! His race record is there for all to see !
 
From today's Irish Times:

Brian O'Connor
Mon, Oct 7, 2013, 01:01
First published: Mon, Oct 7, 2013, 01:01


The Turf Club insists they have no evidence of steroid abuse in Irish racing.
The statement comes on the back of last week’s conviction of a retired Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector of importing banned animal drugs, including a prohibited anabolic steroid.


John Hughes, brother of well-known racehorse trainer Pat Hughes, pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing banned drugs last week, including 6kg of Nitrotain, a banned anabolic steroid. Investigations began after customs officers intercepted two parcels at Dublin Airport.


Hughes was ordered to pay €10,000 to the Kilkenny Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and the case has been adjourned to December 5th.


On the back of Mahmood Al Zarooni’s eight-year ban, and the use of steroids at Godolphin’s stables in England, such speculation closer to home is potentially embarrassing for Ireland’s racing industry. However, the Turf Club’s chief executive insisted yesterday that the regulatory body has no evidence of steroid abuse in Ireland.


“We will be keeping a close eye on this but what I would say is that we carry out extensive testing in training and there is no evidence of steroids being used here. That doesn’t mean there are, or aren’t steroids being used, but that we have no evidence,” said Denis Egan “We tested over 3,000 horses last year, testing them in training and post-racing and found no evidence.”


He added: “We have increased our testing levels and our random inspections and what I would also say is that we are part of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities, which has a set drugs policy. And the evidence coming across from everyone there is that there isn’t a problem.


“Of course, after the Al Zarooni case alarm bells are ringing everywhere about steroids . . . Even in England, with the exception of Al Zarooni, examples are very, very few over there. And we don’t know what these drugs were for, whether they were for use on horses, or cattle.”
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There are some disturbing issues raised by this article in the Irish Independent about the John Hughes court case. He was caught importing enough for up to 1500 doses of Nitrotrain, a steroid which has a withdrawal of only 48 hours. Apparently the documents found at his home suggest this consignment was one of many, and a list of trainers and their contact details was also found.


Richard Forristal – 07 October 2013

AT Carlow District Court last Thursday, John Hughes, a retired Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector, pleaded guilty to five counts of possessing banned animal substances, including the anabolic steroid Nitrotain.


The case has been put back until December 5 after the Leighlinbridge man offered to pay €10,000 to the Kilkenny Society for the Prevention of Cruelty to Animals plus €3,000 in costs.

A Department of Agriculture official described the find as "sinister", and this is certainly a can of worms that has the potential to do real harm to Irish racing's squeaky-clean image in terms of policing prohibitive substances – a subject which was thrust into the sport's headlines earlier this year.

Illicit steroid use has become a consistent thorn in the side of British racing's regulators, with the Mahmood Al Zarooni scandal spearheading a raft of doping-related issues that hang over Sheikh Mohammed's thoroughbred empire.

At Dublin airport back in February 2012, Customs' officials intercepted two parcels bound for John Hughes from Australia.After identifying an assortment of illegal animal drugs, the delivery then went ahead under surveillance, and Hughes' home was raided a few hours later by the Department's special investigations unit, Customs and Gardai.

He attempted to hide documents that showed the shipment was one of many, and refused to name those he supplied with the substances.It was also reported that documents were seized during the search that listed the names and contact details of horse trainers in the midlands.

Nitrotain, which is designed to improve horses' muscle mass, strength and stamina, was one of the substances at the centre of the Al Zarooni find. Hughes' haul consisted of a quantity sufficient to administer up to 1,500 doses.

The response to the discovery by the Turf Club's chief executive Denis Egan was curious."There is no evidence whatsoever that anabolic steroids are in use in Irish racing," Egan is reported to have said, adding that the regulator "found nothing" in over 3,000 tests last year.

Yet, in the wake of the much-publicised Al Zarooni controversy six months ago, Egan had conceded that a 23pc cut in the Turf Club's integrity budget to €5.9m since 2008 – despite a 2pc increase in fixtures – left him "worried" about their ability to keep pace with illicit doping practices.

"In drug testing, the people using the prohibited substances always try to be one step ahead of the testers," he explained. "There is certain development work we would like to be able to do that we haven't been able to do. We have a budget and have to work within that budget."

It's hard to reconcile Egan's latest determination that Irish racing doesn't have a furtive issue with steroid use in light of Thursday's findings, and it would be interesting to know if the Turf Club was aware of the Hughes probe.

More to the point, if there is a list of trainers in evidence that Hughes is alleged to have supplied, will it be made available to the Turf Club? After all, he was hardly supplying the Pony Club with performance-enhancing substances.

Egan maintains that no horse has tested positive for steroid use either at the racecourse or on random stable inspections. However, Nitrotain has an unusually short withdrawal period of just two days, meaning that a horse will test negative for it 48 hours after administration.That must be an issue of serious concern, and it renders Egan's assertion that there is no "evidence" of any illegal steroid use a trifle odd and naive.

In recent months, the Turf Club has been taking a very heavy-handed approach to small trainers' technical rule breaches and house-keeping irregularities.The spectre of undetected steroid use is of far greater consequence to Irish racing's reputation. It's time the Turf Club's diminished resources were redirected to acknowledge as much.
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After Apache won at the weekend there may be a future for "clean" horses after all.
On The Bridle staying very quiet about all of this: maybe the flax seeds are not the only contributor to his "bowels of a six month old " status !
 
Godolphin say horses banned for steroids will return to racecourse

• Encke and Certify reported to be back in training


• Steeler and Artigiano may run in Dubai on Thursday
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Simon Crisford announced that Certify, Encke and other horses banned last year would race this year. Photograph: Paul Grover/Rex

Some of the Godolphin-owned horses treated with steroids last year are back in training and likely to race in Britain at some point, it was announced on Monday. The first of those to return to the racecourse are likely to be Artigiano and Steeler, both entered to run at Meydan in Dubai on Thursday.


Twenty-two Godolphin horses were prevented from running in Britain last year on the grounds they had been given steroids by Mahmood al-Zarooni, employed by Sheikh Mohammed as a trainer in Newmarket until being found guilty and banned from the sport. The horses were unable to run for six months each but those suspensions ended in October.


"We decided recently to continue with some of the horses who did not race last year," said Simon Crisford, Godolphin's spokesman, in a short statement quoted on the operation's website. In addition to the two horses entered on Thursday, Crisford specifically named Certify and Encke, the two most high-profile of the 22 horses, as being among those now back in training.


Certify, a leading contender for the 1,000 Guineas at the time of her ban, "will be aimed at the top fillies' contests during the [Dubai] Carnival," Crisford said. Encke's targets are said to be "in Europe later in the year"; he will be remembered as the horse who foiled Camelot's attempt on the Triple Crown by beating him in the 2012 St Leger, his most recent race.
Crisford did not respond to a request for further information and it is not known how many more of the 22 horses are expected to race this year. However, one of them, the unraced Orkney Island, still holds an entry in the Derby on 7 June.


Racegoers and punters may respond with suspicion to runners known to have received steroids up to April, none of which have raced in the past year. However, Robin Mounsey, a spokesman for the British Horseracing Authority, defended the decision to let them race again.
"The science on anabolic steroids in horses is far from clear, substantially less so than in humans," he said. "It is feasible that horses will benefit from steroids for a period of time after the substance has left the horse's system. However it is unlikely that these beneficial effects would last in perpetuity. This is why the BHA has made the decision to suspend all horses found to have been administered with anabolic steroids for six months."


That view was cautiously supported by David Mountford, the chief executive of the British Equine Veterinary Association, who said: "There isn't a black and white answer. The reason is that using steroids in sport is against the rules, so there isn't any research on their effects and there would be all sorts of practical difficulties in carrying out any research.
"So it's virtually impossible to be definitive but my understanding is that all the scientific indicators are that the residual effect of these drugs would be likely to have gone by now. The amount of time the BHA has banned those horses is enough to allow the effects to pass and the present state of knowledge suggests they would now be competing on level terms."
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From today's Irish Independent.

That list of trainers who were customers of Mr Hughes would be very interesting to read. What exactly the Turf Club could do with it, though, if they are able to get their hands on it, is not obvious. They could call in the people concerned to explain their presence on the list but I doubt they could do much more.

The question of access to horses out of training is not easy to resolve either. But even if it can be resolved, how do you catch someone using a substance such as Nitrotain if it really does clear the system in just 48 hours? The only way to catch someone would be through a tip-off. Or by getting hold of that list...



Turf Club to step up war against doping

No access gained to trainers' list found in raid by Customs

denisegan_Cropped.jpg

Denis Egan


Richard Forristal– 15 January 2014
TURF CLUB chief executive Denis Egan has reiterated that there is "no evidence steroids are being used" in Irish racing circles, though he also conceded that the regulatory body has not gained access to a list of licenced trainers that was found during Customs' October raid on a Carlow premises.


At a sitting of Carlow District Court in October, John Hughes, a retired Department of Agriculture veterinary inspector, pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of banned animal substances, including the anabolic steroid Nitrotain.

The case was subsequently dismissed "on its merits" after Hughes made a donation of €10,000 to Kilkenny Society for Prevention of Cruelty to Animals and agreed to pay court costs of €3,000 as well as witness costs of €100.

SWOOP
During the swoop on Hughes' premises by a Customs special investigation unit and gardai in February 2012, a list of trainers' names and contact details was seized by investigators, but the Turf Club's attempts to ascertain the potentially inflammatory inventory have so far been unsuccessful.

"Obviously, we would like to get that list of names, but we haven't yet," Egan admitted yesterday.
"We are not at the stage where we can't get it. It is important, but there are procedures to be gone through to obtain information and we're in the process of going through those at the moment."

Following the raid, which came on the back of high-profile instances of anabolic steroid use that had rocked the racing scene in England, the Turf Club increased its random stable inspections. Some of the biggest jumps yards in the country were subject to wholesale testing unannounced.
"All the additional tests we did in training came back negative," Egan revealed. "We carried out 189 tests over a period of one week in October and they were all negative. Obviously, we are pleased all the samples have been negative, but it's just a picture in time.

"What I've always said is we have no evidence that steroids are being used, but when you see instances like where there were banned substances found in the Carlow case, you obviously have to be concerned."

Nitrotain, which is designed to improve horses' muscle mass, strength and stamina, was one of the substances at the centre of the Mahmood Al Zarooni find in Newmarket last year.
Hughes' haul reportedly consisted of a quantity sufficient to administer up to 1,500 doses. The drug has an unusually short withdrawal period of 48 hours, meaning that a horse will test negative for it just two days after administration.

This can make detection difficult, because while every race winner is tested in this country, the benefits of the steroid can last for much longer.
As such, the random in-training tests give the Turf Club a chance of identifying any illicit drug use. However, the regulator is currently hamstrung by its inability to test horses that are returned out-of-training in between periods of training, as it has no authority over unlicensed stables.
"We are working on putting a pro- cedure in place so that we have access to all horses at all times once they are returned in training," Egan explained.

SYSTEM
"It is at a very preliminary stage, but we have to set out exactly how we are going to try and do it. Once the system is set up we have to know where horses are at all times and ensure we have access to them.
"Some of them may not be in licenced premises, so we need to make sure that there is a protocol and procedures in place."

The Turf Club's integrity budget, which is funded by Horse Racing Ireland, had been slashed by 23pc over five years up to 2013. In response to last year's developments, though, it has received a cash boost of €167,000 for 2014 that is to be ring-fenced for equine forensic testing.
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From today's Irish TImes. I'm not sure that the increase in testing can be described as 'dramatic' although it is welcome. The number of in-training tests still seems very low to me.

Dramatic increase in testing of horses ’in-training’

A total of 283 tests were carried out on horses in-training compared to 70 in 2012

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165 drug tests on jockeys carried out by the Turf Club last year

Brian O'Connor


Tue, Feb 4, 2014, 09:16
First published: Tue, Feb 4, 2014, 01:00


Statistical evidence of the Turf Club’s dramatically increased testing of horses ‘in-training’ has come from the Integrity body’s statistical report for 2013 which outlines over four times more tests carried out than in the previous year.

A total of 283 tests were carried out on horses in-training compared to 70 in 2012 and just 21 in 2009. All 283 test results were negative. In total 3,207 horses were tested for prohibited substances by the Turf Club last year with one positive result occurring in a point-to-point.


“The increase in relation to horses in-training is a direct result of the anabolic steroid problems in the UK, and also in relation to the seizure of substances in Ireland,” the Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said yesterday.


At Carlow District Court in October, John Hughes, a retired Department of Agriculture Veterinary Inspector, pleaded guilty to five counts of possession of banned animal substances, including an anabolic steroid. The case was subsequently dismissed “on its merits” after Hughes made a donation to charity and agreed to pay court costs.


A raid by Gardái and Customs on Hughes’s property in February also uncovered a list of names of licensed trainers names and contact details.
Egan said yesterday investigations into the matter are “ongoing.”


A total of 165 drug tests on jockeys were carried out by the Turf Club last year with four positive results. They included classic winning rider John Egan who failed to declare he was taking the prescribed medicine prednisolone which he was taking for a medical condition. At a subsequent hearing the Turf Club accepted Egan’s explanation that he had declared the substance previously but not for that test in March.
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A REVIEW into the Godolphin drugs scandal conducted by Lord Stevens has concluded that trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni, who was banned from the sport for eight years for administering anabolic steroids to horses in his care, acted alone.
Stevens, instructed by Godolphin founder Sheikh Mohammed to perform a complete investigation of the sheikh’s equestrian organisations following the damaging case, cleared the sheikh of having any knowledge of the 'purchase, transportation or use of any unregulated medicines' in the Al Zarooni affair and two other drugs-related incidents involving his organisation last year.
The report found the drug seizures resulted from management failings, insufficient oversight and complacency within the sheikh's organisation and highlighted the need for “stronger management, clearer accountability and better internal communication”.
More to follow . . .
 
Given it was instigated by sheikh Mohammed the whole Lord Stevens piece is a debacle and frankly a pointless pr exercise because nobody in the game with half a brain is going to give it any credence.
 
Does anyone seriously think that this report would jeopardise thousands of jobs leaving the UK? If you do, you are a bit naive. Rightly or wrongly, the organisation is above the law.
 
As a card carrying member of the 'elite' I think it is important that they are supported during trying times like this. None of your egalitarian crap please.
 
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Greg Wood's Guardian article already referred to above but worth copying here all the same. I'm also pasting below it one of the comments posted by a reader which are on the ball.


Lord Stevens' doping scandal report lets Sheikh Mohammed off the hook


Questions still remain about how Mahmood al-Zarooni was able to implement the biggest drugs operation in turf history
Mahmood-al-Zarooni-008.jpg

Ex-Godolphin trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni was at the centre of the most serious racing doping scandal of modern times.
Photograph: Justin Tallis/AFP/Getty Images


The three men who did most to shape the sport of horse racing in the 18th and early 19th centuries – Sir Charles Bunbury, Lord George Bentinck and Admiral Henry Rous – are referred to collectively as the Dictators of the Turf. It is often said, when the modern industry is engaged in a bout of infighting, that we could do with a fourth: someone with a genius for organisation, the vision to conceive grand schemes, and the intelligence and determination to carry them out. A do-er, not a delegator.

Were it not for the unfortunate fact that Mahmood al-Zarooni is banned from every track and racing yard in the country until 2021, he might well be an ideal candidate. The Stevens report into Sheikh Mohammed's global equine operations, a brief summary of which was released on Wednesday, confirms the British Horseracing Authority's initial finding after Zarooni's steroid-doping spree at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket last year that Godolphin's former trainer "acted alone in both the procurement and transport to the UK of the drugs" and then "personally provided the same to one of his assistant vets along with directions as to administration".

Lord Stevens and the BHA are in agreement: the biggest doping scandal the British turf has seen was, in effect, a one-man show. Sadly, however, when you consider the few facts about the Godolphin dopings which are in the public domain, and extrapolate just a little towards a few that are not, it sounds no more convincing from a peer of the realm than it did from the sport's regulator. Stevens did, at least, talk to Zarooni himself while compiling his report, which is more than the BHA has ever managed to do, having charged and banned him within a week of the positive test results from his string coming to light.

But we are not allowed to know even what questions were asked, never mind what Zarooni said in response. Was he asked how many doses of steroids he purchased, given that there must have been dozens, and probably hundreds? Can he account for what happened to them all, including those that were, presumably, still unused when he was busted? Above all, was he asked about Encke, the Classic winner that somehow slipped his mind, and could he provide a convincing response?

This is a key point, because while Stevens rubber-stamps the BHA's conclusion that Zarooni acted alone, when he was banned no one knew about Encke. Eleven horses tested positive for steroids when the BHA conducted initial tests on his string, and Zarooni himself then offered a hand-written list of doped horses to his disciplinary hearing which included four more names, all unraced.

But he did not mention Encke, the horse who had given him his second British Classic just a few months beforehand, and beaten a potential Triple Crown winner in Camelot in the process. He forgot about Improvisation too, even though he had appeared, and won, at Newmarket less than a fortnight beforehand.

The fact that these horses and five others had been given stanozolol only emerged three weeks later, when the BHA tested the entire string. It seems probable too that several more horses at Moulton Paddocks had been given ethylestranol, Zarooni's other favoured steroid, which clears a horse's system more quickly than stanozolol. They slipped through the net because the BHA did not test them in time.

Did Zarooni fail to mention Encke deliberately, because he was in enough trouble already, his brain was addled and he did not want to make things worse, or was it because he did not know that the St Leger winner had been doped? The question clearly goes to the heart of the "lone gun" theory, because if he did not know, he was not acting alone. Since there is no evidence that Stevens even asked the question, we are no closer to an answer.

Stevens – whose report was commissioned by Sheikh Mohammed – also concludes that "no evidence whatsoever exists to suggest that HH Sheikh Mohammed … had any knowledge of the illegal activities of Mahmood al-Zarooni". He does concede, however, that "the mere fact that these circumstances and actions could arise without management intervention gives serious cause for concern". It certainly does, given the sheer scale of what Zarooni managed to do before he was rumbled. He acquired large quantities of steroids. He then transported these across thousands of miles to Newmarket, stored the whole lot at Moulton Paddocks – again with no questions asked or suspicions raised – and arranged the administration of hundreds of doses of steroids to 22 horses that we know about and perhaps a dozen or more that we do not.

Ethylestranol in particular is all but useless unless it is administered, usually orally via a paste, on a daily basis. Its effects, though, are swift and dramatic, as is the case for stanozolol, which muscles up horses as rapidly as it does humans. But still, there was no "management intervention" and, most remarkable of all, for the majority of the time that this was taking place Zarooni was in Dubai.

What an exceptional turf administrator he might have made, had he not been tempted by the dark side.
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Harrytheactor
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13 February 2014 12:42am




I know Plod is not renowned for his grasp of the English language, but really - Lord Stevens' use of the phrase "acted alone" is disingenuous to say the least. It is followed immediately by the statement that Al Zarooni "personally provided the [drugs] to one of his assistant vets along with directions as to administration". So that's two people who knew. Then there is the business of the drugs being packaged in Dubai deliberately to deceive, accompanied by paperwork whch compounded the deceit, and somehow stowed on the air force plane under the noses of intense secirity.

Was MAZ really capable of doing all that alone? Bearing in mind the quantity of substances involved, was the procurement really effected without any assistance? Presumably Stevens knows - otherwise he couldn't have reached these conclusions - but he isn't saying.

And why does he insist that the three incidents he has investigated - the doping at Moulton Paddocks, the discovery of prohibited substances at the farm and the smuggling operation at Stansted - are "entirely separate"?

Any copper worth his salt would do his utmost to uncover a link betwen these events. Oh, I forgot - Lord Stevens isn't a copper any more, he is the owner of a private company and he is being paid a fat fee to investigate the operation of the man who is paying that fee. It may be couched in the quasi-judicial language of an official inquiry, but the Stevens report is no nearer a revelatory and transparent investigation than vanity publishing is to great literature.

Greg Wood says elsewhere that Lord Stevens has let Sheikh Mohammed "off the hook" but surely it was the BHA that did that when they tried and convicted Al Zarooni in an afternoon and told him not to darken their door again. How come Stevens could get access to Al Zarooni when the BHA claimed to be unable to do so? The ruler of Dubai might have had a face like thunder that day in the paddock with Clare Balding, but inside he must have been rejoicing that racing's governing body had gifted him the "lone gunman" story. All that remained was for him to commission a "root and branch" investigation while hugging himself with the knowledge that he was to be exonerated.

When the Godolphin team mop up the prizes at the Dubai World Cup - including in all probability the surprisingly forward and well-muscled Encke - I for one won't be cheering.
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Any horse that has been on steroids should never race again

I simply cannot understand that.
 
Yes

I wouldn't have let those Aussie sprinters in either. It's pretty obvious they were still bulked up

Also gambling cheats such as the Pakistani cricketers and some jockeys

It's not hair shirt stuff or hang em flog em. I just believe it sends ultimate message. You steal at work and you don't get job back after 2 years do you?
 
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The BHA will now have powers to test horses at any time after their registration with Weatherby's, whether in or out of training. It will be interesting to know to what extent they plan on actually using them.

Two interesting points among many others:


Any horse entered into a British race may be subject to testing, irrespective of what country it comes from. This could be on raceday and/or out-of-competition, and could even be before the horse is present in Great Britain.
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Please note: While hair sampling is available to the BHA at all times as part of the testing regime, it is not envisaged that it will be deployed extensively immediately upon implementation of the new Rules. The new Rules will not be applied retrospectively. Instead their purpose is to ensure that the zero-tolerance policy is adhered to moving forwards. We expect hair sampling to become a more useful, and more frequently deployed, tool as the Rules mature over time. (However, any evidence (via hair sampling or otherwise) that identifies a breach of any previous Rules will be duly pursued.)
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