Racing: BHA praised for swift action on doping

Confidence of punters going forward. We all talk about trying to get news coverage of racing on to the front pages and, obviously, this has done that but for all the wrong reasons.

On the plus side, the BHA has acted quickly and it looks like decisively and we just have to hope that punters look at that and that it restores some confidence.

David Williams of Ladbrokes similarly praised the BHA for the speed with which it dealt with the matter. He said: “There is no escaping the fact that anything that puts racing into the headlines for the wrong reasons can only have a damaging effect on the sport as a whole. Having said that, I do think the authorities deserve credit and they have clearly taken a policy that no name is too big and no stone is too big to look under.”

Godolphin’s racing manager Simon Crisford, who attended yesterday’s hearing with Al Zarooni, said: “Mr Al Zarooni acted with awful recklessness and caused tremendous damage, not only to Godolphin and British racing. I think it will take a very long time for Godolphin to regain the trust of the British public. We’re shocked and completely outraged by the actions he has taken.”

Al Zarooni was charged with violating multiple rules related to banned substances, as well as failing to keep medication records and with conduct prejudicial to the sport. At a routine visit to Al Zarooni’s Moulton Paddocks stables on 9 April, the BHA tested 45 horses. Seven tested positive for ethylestranol and four for stanozolol – the same steroid found in the urine of Canadian sprinter Ben Johnson in his positive test at the 1988 Olympics in Seoul.

The 37-year-old Al-Zarooni told investigating officers that he administered four more horses with the prohibited substances but they weren’t tested when the BHA visited the stables. He said on Monday the horses he doped weren’t racing at the time so he “did not realise that what I was doing was in breach of the rules of racing.”

“I would like to apologise to Sheikh Mohammed, as well as to all those involved with Godolphin and the public who follow British racing,” Al Zarooni said in a statement released on his behalf by the BHA. “It was my responsibility to be aware of the rules regarding the use of prohibited substances in Britain. I can only apologise and repeat what I said earlier in the week – I have made a catastrophic error.”

BHA chief executive Paul Bittar said in a statement. “We believe that the eight-year disqualification issued to Mahmood Al Zarooni by the disciplinary panel, together with the six month racing restriction placed on the horses in question by the BHA, will serve to reassure the public, and the sport’s participants, that use of performance-enhancing substances in British Racing will not be tolerated and that the sport has in place a robust and effective anti-doping and medication control programme,”

Sheikh Mohammed, also Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, has become one of the most prominent owners in racing since he established the Godolphin stables in Dubai and England in 1992. His royal blue silks have won 202 Group 1 races in 12 different countries and his passion for horses helped transform Dubai into a world power in flat racing. The sparkling Meydan racecourse opened there in 2010.

While Al Zarooni breached the rules of British racing, administering drugs to racehorses while not in training is not outlawed in some countries, notably Australia.

SELECTIONS

Perth

2.20 Elmaatigra

2.55 Opera Og

3.25 Northern Acres

4.00 Hazy Tom

4.35 Pettifour

5.05 Dawn Commander

5.35 Mysteree

Doncaster

1.30 Haywain

2.00 Little Jimmy Odsox

2.30 Takealookatmenow

3.05 Disclaimer

3.35 Elidor

4.10 Lieutenant

Miller (nap)

4.45 Foxtrot Jubilee

5.15 Last Sovereign

Sandown

1.40 Miss Diva

2.10 Fehaydi

2.45 Chil The Kite

3.15 Eye Of The Storm

3.50 Mujazif

4.25 Regal Silk

5.00 Clear Praise

Chepstow

4.50 Ugly Bug

5.20 Molon Labe

5.55 Carrigmorna King

6.25 Cross Kennon

7.00 Hawkeye Native

7.35 Dimpsy Time

8.05 Feast Of Fire

Plumpton

4.40 Midnight Appeal

5.10 Lady Willa

5.45 E Street Boy

6.15 Brunette’Sonly

6.50 Illegale

7.25 Chestnut Ben

7.55 Superciliary

Double

Lieutenant Miller

4:10 Doncaster

Hazy Tom

4:00 Perth