Royal horse's failed drug test unlikely to have long-term ramifications
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Version 0 of 1. Horse racing made the front pages on Wednesday morning following the announcement from Buckingham Palace that the Queen's 2013 Ascot Gold Cup winner, Estimate, had tested positive for morphine after finishing second in this year's famous race at the royal meeting last month. It is an embarrassment for racing's most high-profile owner and for Newmarket trainer Sir Michael Stoute but there are unlikely to be long-term ramifications for them or the sport in what is believed to be a case of contaminated feed. Morphine, which is used as a painkiller or sedative, is not banned for use in training to treat horses but is outlawed on racedays, and traces of the drug were found in the five-year-old mare when she was tested on Gold Cup day. The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced on 17 July that five horses had tested positive for morphine. Northamptonshire feed merchants Dodson and Horrell, who have supplied Stoute's stable for a number of years and have had a royal warrant since 1985, had already gone public last week, stating that one of their suppliers had informed them of "a possible component contamination". There is speculation that up to 15 horses may be involved. In the last major case of morphine contamination, the 2002 Hennessy Gold Cup winner Be My Royal was one of 37 Irish cases, and he lost the race despite a long court case fought by the trainer Willie Mullins, who was cleared of any blame. Lambourn-based Charlie Hills has stated that he is one of the other trainers involved in the current case, but the BHA will not reveal the names of the horses or trainers involved until they have the results of the "B" samples, after which Estimate and all the other horses that have failed the raceday tests will be disqualified and the Queen will lose her prize money of £80,625. The amount of morphine involved is such that any horse would not even notice an effect and the mare herself is expected to line up at the Glorious Goodwood meeting next week. Investigations will continue – with the likelihood being that rogue poppy seeds have made their way into the feed – but the current drugs case pales into comparison with the Godolphin and Sungate affairs, which blighted the sport last year and resulted in two trainers being warned off. And, for that matter, with the last time the Queen was involved in a drugs scandal in 2009 when her trainer Nicky Henderson was fined £40,000 and banned from making entries for three months after Moonlit Path, one of the Queen's horses in his care, was injected with a banned blood-clotting agent on the day of a race. |