TESTING TIMES AS RACING CHIEFS TACKLE SCOURGE OF COCAINE USE
LET’S START with something that jockeys didn’t see coming. On Friday, November 22, every single jockey who had a declared ride at Gowran Park had to give a urine sample to be drug-tested. This was the first time in Ireland that every jockey at a race meet was tested. Thirty-seven jockeys were not only drug-tested but they were also breath-tested for alcohol. “It was a surprise,” Davy Russell said. “It’s a brilliant idea. I didn’t hear any problems on the day by anybody.”
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) say it’s carried out 304 drug tests of jockeys so far this year with 63 of those tests taken at point-to-point meetings (this is the first year of testing at point-to-points). Horse racing doesn’t come under the Sport Ireland jurisdiction or the Irish anti-doping rules.
The IHRB pay for the drug-testing of jockeys themselves. They employ a panel of independent testers and the samples are sent for testing to a WADA-accredited lab in Barcelona. “The level of testing carried out on jockeys is considerably higher than in any other sport in Ireland,” IHRB communications manager Niall Cronin said.
Last week, on Friday, November 29, two Irish jockeys received bans for testing positive for cocaine. Cian Cullinan had his jockey licence suspended for four years after urine samples taken at Listowel racecourse on September 10 were found to contain benzoylecgonine (metabolite of cocaine).
Willingness
Cullinan did not request the ‘B’ sample to be analysed and a guilty plea was given. Dr Jennifer Pugh, senior IHRB medical officer, “expressed a view that what had occurred was not indicative of habitual use”.
The second rider was David Simmonson. He got a two-year ban after a urine test at Tipperary racecourse on August 11 contained a metabolite of cocaine and a metabolite of cannabis. Simmonson didn’t request the ‘B’ sample to be analysed and gave a guilty plea.
A statement on the IHRB website said: “The Referrals Committee complimented Mr Simmonson on the manner in which he had addressed the serious difficulties he faced and acknowledged his willingness to deal with these issues both before and after testing positive.” Both cases can be reviewed within one year if requested by the jockeys.
The above are the two cases of positive tests for cocaine by jockeys in Ireland this year. There were three positive tests for cocaine by jockeys in 2015. That number increased to four in 2016 and four in 2017. Last year, five jockeys tested positive for cocaine.
The IHRB responded to this alarming trend by announcing a five-year starting point penalty for any rider who fails a drugs test.
“This was a decision advised by the Referrals Committee following the number of positive tests in 2018 and it was in their opinion that the penalties previously imposed were failing to act as deterrent to jockeys,” Cronin added.
“The Referrals Committee do continue to hear each situation on a case-by-case basis and have the right to consider mitigating circumstances”.
So just how serious is the use of cocaine in the sport to those on the inside? “It is an issue,” Davy Russell says. “It should be zero tolerance especially on obvious drugs like cocaine. I’m a father of five and I don’t want racing to be a place that accepts cocaine and recreational drugs.
“The Turf Club (now the IHRB) and the doctors are doing quite a bit for it to become zero. And we have spoken about it (in the weighing room). There are a number of lads around me and I am 100 per cent certain that none of them have ever taken part in any recreational drugs, or any drugs at all.”
Would you have suspicions about others? “Suspicions?” Russell asks. “I really enjoy myself when I go out,
I like to dance, I like to jump around the place. I like to have fun – well, not anymore. I’ve kind of got over that stage. I never drink. I never took any description of a drug in my life.
“I did feel, at times, that people were suspicious of me. Not in a bad way and not that it ever worried me but in all my days and of all the places I’ve been, I’ve never in my life seen cocaine.”
Russell was among those who lent their support at the Drug and Alcohol Workshop that took place at the Horse and Jockey Hotel in Tipperary on Wednesday night. This is one of two workshops that are mandatory for apprentice riders to attend to try and improve the education and support networks available to jockeys.
“Unfortunately, a lot of these lads are young and that’s not an excuse. You’re old enough to leave school or whatever you do, so you’re old enough to know that you don’t take drugs,” Russell adds. “It has a huge part to play in mental health issues. People get a few quid at a young age and feel they’re superstars – they’re the furthest thing from it. When you start getting success, it is harder you need to work to maintain it”.
Historically, there are tracks around the country where the drug-testing of jockeys did not take place. “There’s only certain tracks that they drug-test at, the likes of Killarney, Galway, Gowran and Mallow,” Russell adds. “There’s other tracks during the summer (where) they don’t test at all [in my experience]. Why? I don’t know. And for a person to get caught it’s actually stupid. They’ve no regard, they don’t fear getting caught. It’s like they don’t care, I don’t know what it is. All I know is that the numbers should be zero.”
Symptomatic
Andrew Coonan is secretary of the Irish Jockeys Association and, as a solicitor, he’s represented jockeys at hearings. He believes the problem in racing is symptomatic of the societal one. “Of course there’s a problem if cocaine is being used by jockeys. However, we are certainly aware of the significant problem that we have in society with drugs,” Coonan said.
“I’m very much of the view that the situation we have with jockeys here is reflective of where we are as a society – that drugs are a major problem for a lot of people and particularly prevalent among our younger people.
“It would be easy to think that because, it’s class A, it’s cocaine, there’s a thought that jockeys – because they live on the edge or they live a fast life – are more susceptible to it. But I don’t actually think that is the situation. I think what we’re really seeing is the appallingly wide-scale availability of cocaine within our society,” Coonan adds.
“There are many factors as to why they would test positive. Some socio-economic background difficulties, family problems, inadvertent use, use without being fully aware what they were letting themselves in for. A lot of different reasons.”
The IHRB say they are open to different ways of testing jockeys including the testing of hair follicles which would allow drugs to be detected in riders for three months after being taken, rather than the estimated three days with urine samples.
“We will continue to consider different options in how we carry out the testing on a race-day,” Cronin says. “However, it is important to stress, this is not in the hope of catching more jockeys but more so for them to see that it is unacceptable and act as a deterrent for them to take drugs in the first place.”