BYRNES BAN
Trainer suspended after horse found to be ‘doped’
TRAINER Charles Byrnes has been suspended for six months and fined €1,000 by the IHRB in a case surrounding the performances of Viking Hoard in 2018.
The investigation focussed on the performance of the horse in three races, most significantly when pulled up at Tramore on October 18, 2018, in addition to his running at Galway (July 30) and Sedgefield (October 2).
Irregular betting activities surrounded each of the runs, with the horse being layed significantly on the exchanges.
But the investigation centred largely on the Tramore race, in which Viking Hoard was pulled up.
Samples taken after the race showed there were significant levels of a prohibited substance – a sedative – in the horse’s system.
When quizzed, Byrnes admitted that the horse had been left ‘unattended’ for between 20 and 25 minutes prior to the race.
The IHRB (Irish Horesracing Regulatory Board) issued a 14-page report on the case yesterday explaining, among other things, that Byrnes was “seriously negligent” and the horse’s sample showed a “dangerous degree of sedation”. The committee ‘accepted the interpretation of the evidence that the horse had been “nobbled” by an unidentified third party when left unaccompanied’ at Tramore. The report also states that “no evidence to connect Mr Byrnes with
betting patterns” had been
found. And the sanctions were imposed because of the sedatives found in Viking Hoard’s system and the fact that the horse had been left unattended in the stable-yard in Tramore.