Racehorse failed drugs test after stable hand urinated in its hay
RACEHORSES may be failing drugs tests because grooms taking painkillers and hay fever medication are urinating in stables, a trainer has said.
For months a cloud has hung over Dean Ivory, a long-time Hertfordshire trainer, after two of his horses tested positive for banned substances in 2016.
But an investigation by the British Horse Authority (BHA) has now concluded the drugs entered at least one of the animal’s systems via an innocent, if unsavoury route.
The investigation was launched when trace soft he analgesic O-des methyl tramadol were found in the system of then two-year-old sprinter Wotadoll, after she came ninth in a race at Wolverhampton in November.
A distraught Mr Ivory, who has an unblemished record going back 16 years, was at a loss to explain the breach.
However, the groom responsible for looking after the horse has since stepped forward to admit a habit of relieving himself in Wotadoll’s stable.
The BHA established that Shane Cuddy, the staff member, who is no longer employed at Mr Ivory’s yard, had been recovering from a surgery in the lead-up to the race and had been taking the opioid painkiller tramadol, which metabolises into O-des methyl tramadol.
“I had no idea you could get crosscontamination like that,” Mr Ivory told Racing Post.
“I’m guilty because I am responsible for my staff members, but if I was more aware that this could happen I could have made my staff more aware. This could happen to other trainers.” Mr Ivory, who has since updated his yard’s health and safety policy to explicitly ban urinating in the stables, said he suspected the practice was going on at other establishments and in stables at racecourses.
The trainer was fined a total £1,500 by the BHA for not taking all reasonable precautions to prevent contamination in the case of Wotadoll, and following a failed drugs test by another of his horses, Links Lady Drive, after she won at Windsor in June last year.
In that case, traces of the antihistamine cetirizine were found, which were traced to both a stable girl and the horse’s jockey, who were both on the medication.
There is no suggestion, however, that Links Lady Drive was contaminated through urine.
“I’m very embarrassed that a member of staff has urinated in the stable considering we’ve a new toilet block here,” said Mr Ivory.
Links Lady Drive has been disqualified from her Windsor win. The trainer also revealed that he had reimbursed the horse’s owners for their loss of earnings and waived a months’ training fees by way of apology.
“It’s cost me dearly,” he said. “Let’s hope that something can be learned from this.”