GUILTY BYRNES BANNED
Trainer’s horse was ‘nobbled’ with sedative
ROYAL ASCOT and Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Charles Byrnes was yesterday banned for six months after his runner Viking Hoard was found to have been doped to stop it from winning.
Byrnes, from Limerick, was found guilty by the
Irish Horseracing Board when it was revealed that Viking Hoard had been adminstered a banned substance when lay bets (to lose) were staked, including one of £31,110 to win £2,850, at Tranmore in October 2018.
Before the race suspicions were aroused when Viking Hoard, above, drifted from 4-1 to 8-1 in the betting. The seven-year-old was pulled up in the contest after which a urine sample was found to contain HEPS, a metabolite of acepromazine (ACP), which is a sedative.
The gelding has a history of being involved with lay bets. At Sedgefield in October 2018, £27,000 was staked on the horse to lose and a bet of £49,000 on the horse not to win was made at Galway in July 2018.
Declan Buckley, Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s deputy head of security, provided evidence that the bets came from an unnamed individual associated with match fixing.The committee also accepted the interpretation that the horse had been “nobbled” by an unidentified third party. Byrnes plans to appeal.
The most recent high-profile doping case in Britain was four years ago after the Hughie Morrison-trained Our Little Sister finished last atWolverhampton.
Morrison was close to losing his licence and offered a reward of £10,000 for information regarding the steroids found in his filly.
Morrison was eventually exonerated by the British Horseracing Authority.