Zanahiyr on his way to the start of the 2022 Champion Hurdle© Photo Healy Racing
Gordon Elliott ran 60 horses at the Cheltenham Festival last year and there were no issues with 59 of them, but that doesn’t matter to a significant cohort of the public who have been up in arms over a positive sample taken from Zanahiyr after the horse finished third in the Champion Hurdle.
Zanahiyr tested positive for Lidocaine which is a common ingredient in a number of over the counter medicines used by humans to reduce pain or discomfort caused by skin irritations, sunburn, insect bites, mouth ulcers and even haemorrhoids. The horse had been stabled at Cheltenham for three days prior to his run and it seems most likely that he was contaminated by coming into contact with someone taking a medication containing the substance during this time period.
Subsequent investigations, including a visit to Elliott’s yard the following month by BHA officials and interviews with all his staff members present at Cheltenham and his Veterinary surgeon, failed to discover the source of the contamination.
The horse has been disqualified from his Champion Hurdle placing, as is the case with any positive sample, but there is no sense that anything malicious took place. Zanahiyr also doesn’t appear to have gained any advantage from his exposure to Lidocaine as he ran more or less the same race a month earlier when second to Honeysuckle in the Irish version of the Champion Hurdle and again the following month when falling at the final flight at Aintree when upsides Epatante which was one length in front of him at Cheltenham.
The only other sanction issued by the BHA was a fine of £1,000 for Elliott because he was adjudged to have not properly versed his staff in the dangers of cross-contamination.
All of this is pretty routine stuff, albeit the Champion Hurdle is a bigger deal than most other races, but because it relates to Gordon Elliott lots of people are getting hot under the collar. The internet is awash with people complaining that the sanctions against the trainer were too lenient and that racing is turning a blind eye to his actions. This does not appear to be the case in this instance and is not in any way based on facts, but that doesn’t seem to matter.
Racing appears to constantly find itself on the backfoot in these sorts of situations. Trying to defend something when in reality there is probably nothing to defend is an extremely difficult task. Perhaps it was in an effort to avoid such a scenario that led to the BHA taking almost a year to reach a verdict and publish its conclusions.
When things are black or white there is generally no issue, but these grey areas allow conspiracy theorists to thrive. Because there is no way to conclusively ascertain exactly how Zanahiyr had Lidocaine in its system the guessing games start and this isn’t good for the sport.
The Viking Hoard case from Tramore and the earlier Foxrock case from Punchestown highlighted how these grey areas create a real mess for the sport. No CCTV cameras in the stable yards on either occasion meant the authorities were never able to get to the bottom of what actually occurred. The cross-contamination of Zanahiyr is something similar. We are left to fill in the gaps ourselves.
The CCTV issue is now more or less resolved and the authorities need to find a similar solution regarding cross-contamination. When there was Foot And Mouth in Ireland every business and farm had disinfectant troughs at their entrances to help stop the spread of the disease. During Covid we also had disinfectant dispensers everywhere. Shouldn’t all stable yards have something similar installed on a permanent basis.
If the authorities could eradicate cross-contamination it would be one less grey area for the sport to try and defend.
Paul Kimmage looks to have unearthed a potential scandal in his latest horse racing expose published in yesterday’s Sunday Independent newspaper. The investigative journalist has been like a dog with a bone over the last year or so in his quest to prove a widespread culture of doping within horse racing and, while he has so far failed in that endeavour, his latest piece about trainer Homer Scott asks some serious questions of the sport’s regulators.
It seems clear from Kimmage’s article that serious animal welfare issues were discovered by the Department of Agriculture Food & the Marine (DAFM) when they inspected the trainer’s premises at Lisheen Stud in 2022 on foot of a tip off. A subsequent visit to the same premises by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) appears to have confirmed many of these issues, but instead of charges being instigated against the trainer it looks like some sort of arrangement was struck whereby Scott voluntarily relinquished his training licence and no further action was taken.
Considering the lengths the IHRB went to to expose welfare issues and impose sanctions against Stephen Mahon it seems extraordinary that Homer Scott has simply been permitted to walk away from training horses.
Scott, a once prominent trainer with two Cheltenham Festival winners to his name, has taken somewhat of a back seat in recent years, concentrating more on breeding and owning horses than training them, but there are questions to be asked as to how no further action has been taken against him over what appear to be very serious welfare issues regarding the animals in his care.
The Dublin Racing Festival weekend was a great success on many levels with high quality racing, great crowds and a significant number of UK visitors, but all is not necessarily rosy in the garden of Irish National Hunt racing when you analyse the results.
One trainer winning six of the eight Grade 1 races is certainly not a good look. The same trainer had the second, third, fourth, fifth and sixth home in one of the Grade 1 races he didn’t win. In the other Grade 1 he didn’t even run his two potentially best middle-distance Novice Hurdlers - Impaire Et Passe and Champ Kiely - so it’s not too far of a stretch to think he could have actually won all eight Grade 1 races across the weekend.
The dominance of Willie Mullins is the product of his own particular level of genius coupled with a desire from all the big owners to have their best horses trained by whoever they consider to be the best trainer and there is probably nothing that could or should be done to alter that situation.
The breeding side of the industry also took quite a knock at DRF with all eight Grade 1s won by French-bred horses. Only 22 of the 53 runners in those Grade 1 races were Irish-bred which must be the lowest percentage ever. Even more surprising when you consider the lack of international competitors in those races as there were only two UK-trained runners.
