Henderson lands ban

Published on Friday 3 July 2009 23:13

NICKY Henderson has been handed a three-month ban and fined a record £40,000 over a failed drugs test involving a horse he trains for The Queen.

The leading National Hunt trainer was last Monday found guilty of using a prohibited substance on The Queen's mare Moonlit Path at Huntingdon in February. Henderson attended a personal hearing on Thursday night, when pleas of mitigation were entered to a British Horseracing Authority panel, and learned of his punishment yesterday morning.

The 58-year-old handler faced a possible disqualification from the training ranks, but will instead be unable to run any of his horses from 11 July to 10 October. He has also been hit with a record fine imposed on any British trainer.

A BHA panel, chaired by Tim Charlton QC, concluded that disqualifying Henderson was not warranted – but also that a fine was not enough.

The punishment handed out means Henderson can continue to employ his workforce, and that owners can keep their horses with them if they wish. If owners want to run their horses during his suspension, they must be entered by, and put into the care of, another trainer.

In making its decision, the panel also took into account various factors, including the fact the substance was administered by an experienced vet whom Henderson considered as an advisor – and also that the substance is unlikely to act as a performance enhancer. Also considered was Henderson's contribution to the sport and his charitable activities.

Henderson's 40,000 fine is twice that of the previous record penalty of 20,000 imposed on Michael Wigham in February 2008.

Speaking last night, Henderson branded the decision to stop him from making entries for three months as "harsh". He said: "I am obviously hugely relieved that this saga has been concluded and, even though this seems a harsh sentence, we accept the findings and can now look forward again to the future and an exciting season ahead.

"As we are unable to have any runners for three months in our name, it is going to be all the more difficult to emulate last season's amazing results, but this will make us try even harder to do so. Although the medication should not have been administered, I can only re-iterate, as the panel has accepted, that it was only given in the interest of the welfare of Moonlit Path herself."

Moonlit Path finished sixth in the TurfTV Mares' Novices' Hurdle on 19 February, after which she tested positive for tranexamic acid, an anti-bleeding drug, which contravened BHA Rule 200. The race was won by stablemate Ravello Bay.

Henderson had admitted to three of the four charges he faced, but denied any wrongdoing in relation to Rule 200, which governs administering or attempting to administer a prohibited substance. Henderson has always maintained the medication was used "in the interests of the horse's welfare" – and not to improve performance.

The Lambourn trainer has the right to appeal. Moonlit Path was making her racecourse debut at Huntingdon, after which the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory discovered the banned substance. The finding was then confirmed by Laboratoire des Courses Hippiques, who performed the counter analysis. The five-year-old mare, who has subsequently been disappointed from the race, has since run three times, without success.

Henderson has twice been champion National Hunt trainer in a 31-year career and enjoyed a superb 2008-09 campaign. The Seven Barrows handler accrued over 2 million in prize-money, and won the Champion Hurdle at the Cheltenham Festival with Punjabi. He also registered a Royal Ascot winner last month, when Caracciola landed the Queen Alexandra Stakes.

The Queen's jumps racing advisor, Sir Michael Oswald, said: "We are disappointed. We will obviously discuss it but have not had the chance to do so. We need to read the findings and take them all in before any decisions are made."