skydy
Well-Known Member
Surely Princess Haya's presidency is close to being untenable?
Unless the rules are changed, I believe this is her last term.
It will be interesting to see if the FEI changes the rules.
Surely Princess Haya's presidency is close to being untenable?
The Sheikh is probably not a happy camper.
Endurance at Euston has been cancelled?!
Endurance at Euston has been cancelled?!
Yesterday a great bull of a five year old won the Lockinge for Godolphin. No doubts that he will test clear for banned substances, as presumably all the horses in the Suroor yard. How, though can the authorities know this horse hasn't been pre-conditioned on steroids? All it would have taken was to spell him in Dubai, medicate him, give him so many months for it to leave his system before he raced.
Not saying it happened, but there will always be a question mark over these winners now.
For me, the use of steroids, especially joint medication in such young horses raises the following questions:
Are we breeding race horses fit for purpose anymore ?
Should they be running at 2 yrs old ?
If the above answers are no and no (& I suspect they are) and nothing is done to make fundamental changes to the current system then maybe we do need to reconsider the medication rules !!!??
Bet Coolmore are furious! I would be if I were them; value taken off Camelot if Enkce had been given steroids prior to Doncaster last year.2012 St Leger winner, Encke, trained by Mahmood Al Zarooni, has apparently failed a test for banned substances,among other positive results from the stable, it says on the Racing Post website.Where is this going to end? This scandal just gets worse!
Just heard on BBC news another 7 horses tested positive for steroids.
.......
Safe to assume ALL Godolphin horses are drugged, they are a bloody crooked bunch and I hope they do head off to France (Telegraph comment yesterday).
Improvisation raced and won at Newmarket on April 17th, eight days after the BHA testers had entered Al Zarooni’s yard. If he had been administered stanozolol prior to April 9th, which he presumably was, yet still tested positive on April 29th, it suggests he was administered it a relatively short time prior to the April 9th tests.
So, why did Al Zarooni race him, presumably in the knowledge that he had stanozolol in his system? Did Al Zarooni have reason to believe, perhaps based on previous experience, that the stanozolol wouldn’t show up in the routine post-race test?
It should be noted that it is generally a urine sample that is taken for a routine post-race test, whereas it was blood tests that were taken from the horses in Al Zarooni’s yard on April 9th and April 29th that returned the positive results.
We are unlikely to ever know the answer to the specific case of Improvisation as, embarrassingly for the BHA, he was not routine tested after his Newmarket victory
Usually Alec I agree with you on almost everything, but in this case I cant say I do (sorry )
I think they have been good for racing and have ploughed a lot of money into the sport, with sponsorship, funding of vet research, employment, tv & newspaper bearing in mind Chan 4 racing would be gone without them and they own the RP, which is the only racing daily. The trouble is, Godolphin has got too big and what started off as a small select band of horses (e.g. the best Sheik M had) to run under the Godolphin banner has just expanded to two stables full of fairly average horses and with Coolmoores dominance, not only on the track but also their roster of stallions (& the Sheiks refusal to use their stallions), theyve lost out and lost their way. Its too big, the sheik has lost control and taken his eye off the ball. He was far more successful as an owner when he had his horses with the likes of Sir Henry, Micheal Stoute and so on and his breeding was small and select. Im not sure his choice of current trainers & racing manager have done him any favours. And while SBSs stable might have been cleared of drug misuse, the practice of wintering his horses in Dubai, where the use of steroids out of training is acceptable, he MUST have known what was going on. I think its a bit late for him to be furious now.
But I do think racing still needs him but I think he needs to review his overall strategy for breeding and racing and clean up his act both here and in Dubai. Until Dubai is clean, any horses that race over there and then over here will be subject to much suspicion.
I think this is also a wake up call for the BHA and their testing methods.
In a way, I think a lot of good will come out of this, but the pain in the meantime could be hard to take.
If the winner was expected to win or was a short priced 2nd fav to a well beaten fav the the beaten horse will be tested not the winner.