Elliott fined after ‘mystery’ positive test at Cheltenham

Gordon Elliott, the three-time Grand National-winning trainer, was fined £1,000 and his horse Zanahiyr disqualified from third place in last year’s Unibet Champion Hurdle by the British Horseracing Authority’s independent disciplinary panel at a remote hearing yesterday.

The then five-year-old was found to have tested positive for a banned race-day substance.

Besides being thrown out from third, with Saint Roi promoted to that position from fourth, the biggest loss for connections of Zanahiyr at Bective Stud will be forfeiting the £47,000 prize money.

Zanahiyr, who chased home the mares Honeysuckle and Epatante at Cheltenham last March, tested positive for a metabolite of lidocaine, a local anaesthetic that is an allowed medication in racehorses so long as it is out of the system by race day.

However, neither Elliott nor the BHA could explain how it came to be in Zanahiyr’s system as he had not been treated with any medication containing lidocaine and human contamination appeared unlikely, so it was put down as a “mystery” case.

Leaving no stone unturned, the BHA had asked the IHRB, its Irish counterparts, to make an unannounced visit to Elliott’s yard last April, but investigators found no evidence of lidocaine at Cullentra.

Elliott’s vet, who treated Zanahiyr for a back problem before Cheltenham, said he had not used that particular medication.

The County Meath-based trainer also provided the BHA with the names of all his staff who travelled to Cheltenham last year with a list of any medications they were on at the time, as lidocaine is also present in some over-the-counter drugs for humans. But none of them were on a medication containing lidocaine.

Rory Mac Neice, Elliott’s solicitor, said that the racecourse stables at Cheltenham, where Zanahiyr was stabled for the three days before the race, was “overwhelmingly the most likely place” where he would have come into contact with lidocaine.

He added that Elliott had taken all reasonable steps to prevent cross-contamination.

“I’m grateful to the panel for making a finding of low culpability. That was important to me. It shows I had taken reasonable precautions,” Elliott said.

“That said, the buck stops with me and I fully support the rules on anti-doping.”