UNITED KINGDOM: HORSE RACING: Trainer for Godolphin admits catastrophic doping error

Record ID: 790187

  • Title: UNITED KINGDOM: HORSE RACING: Trainer for Godolphin admits catastrophic doping error
  • Date: 23rd April 2013
  • Summary: LONDON, ENGLAND, UNITED KINGDOM (APRIL 23, 2013) (REUTERS) (SOUNDBITE) (English) TONY SMURTHWAITE, ASISTANT EDITOR RACING POST, SAYING "Certify who is unbeaten and won a Group 1 race last year; she was due to run in the 1000 Guineas in early May. She's now effectively stuck in her box along with 10 others, and then the other 200 horses in the string will need a trainer wh
  • Embargoed: 8th May 2013 13:00
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  • Location: United Kingdom
  • Country: United Kingdom
  • Topics: Sports
  • Reuters ID: LVA5156N6RMD4V51IPJM6Q3XADJE
  • Story Text: A trainer for Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum's horses has admitted to a "catastrophic error" in using banned steroids to dope horses at the Dubai ruler's Godolphin racing stable.
    Eleven horses tested positive for steroids, including stanozolol - the performance-enhancing drug used by disgraced Olympic sprinter Ben Johnson at the 1988 Seoul Olympics.
    The trainer, Mahmood Al Zarooni, is to attend a British Horseracing Authority (BHA) disciplinary inquiry after the positive tests from horses in his care at Newmarket, southern England.
    Speaking on Tuesday, Tony Smurthwaite, assistant editor of the Racing Post newspaper and website, said: "It's a bombshell really for Godolphin. Their trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was visited by the British Horseracing Authority in early April for a random test on his horses. Forty-five horses were tested and 11 came back positive for anabolic steroids which are a complete no-go for a racehorse trainer. He now faces a disciplinary hearing which could be this week and we fully expect him to be stripped of his trainer's licence at that point."
    Smurthwaite said that steroids cannot be used during the racing season, but the rules are hazier about their use out of season.

    "The BHA say that they are banned for training and they are banned for racing," he said. "That does leave the question, when a horse is out of training, can you apply steroids? In other parts of the world steroid use is much more widely administered. In Britain we don't really know, it's kind of a question that is raised by an example like this. No one would be surprised if horses were administered steroids because they help horses overcome injury, they build muscle mass so they do confer advantages but the other end of the scale is if a trace is left you are in trouble."

    "I deeply regret what has happened. I have made a catastrophic error," Al Zarooni said on Godolphin's website(www.godolphin.com).
    He added as "the horses involved were not racing at the time, I did not realise that what I was doing was in breach of the rules of racing. I can only apologise for the damage this will cause to Godolphin and to racing generally."
    Smurthwaite said it was a personal disaster for Al Zarooni.

    "For a person who is training 200 horses for the ruler of Dubai it's a very high pressure situation." he said. "He excelled in Dubai, he started off training Arab horses, or assisting with Arab horses. He caught the eye of Sheikh Mohammed or was cherry-picked by Sheikh Mohammed and he has done fantastically well. He's won the world's richest horse race, and not many people have done that and he has a great record. So it's a stunning blow, a stunning blow for Goldolphin."
    Samples were taken from 45 horses at Godolphin's Moulton Paddocks Stables on April 9. Eleven samples were found to contain prohibited substances including ethylestranol and stanozolol.
    One of the horses to test positive was Certify. The filly will not now be allowed to take part in the 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket next month.
    Unbeaten in four career outings, Certify was one of seven horses to test positive for ethylestranol. Gold Cup runner-up Opinion Poll was one of four to test positive for stanozolol.

    "Certify who is unbeaten and won a Group 1 race last year; she was due to run in the 1000 Guineas in early May," said Smurthwaite.

    "She's now effectively stuck in her box along with 10 others, and then the other 200 horses in the string will need a trainer when it looks as though Al Zarooni will lose his licence. They'll know to have a plan in place but the whole operation is beginning to generate momentum - we have the Guineas, we have Royal Ascot, we have Goodwood - suddenly it has all come to a grinding halt. So this season is ripped in two."
    The news comes after horseracing in Britain has enjoyed a successful and popular series of races so the revelations about Godolphin will not be welcomed by the racing fraternity.

    "It's not good," said Smurthwaite. "We have just come out of a spell where we have had a lovely Grand National winner, we had a fantastic Cheltenham, we've got the Punchestown festival this week which with Sprinter Sacre running today, the best horse we have seen for a long time yet everyone is talking about a drugs case."
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