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From RP
PHILIP FENTON, trainer of Dunguib and Last Instalment, is due to appear before Carrick-on-Suir district court on Thursday charged with possession of anabolic steroids.
A search of the trainer’s yard by the department of agriculture is alleged to have found the illegal substances and a spokesman for the department has confirmed that a hearing will take place this week, watched closely by the Turf Club.
Denis Egan: "we will be paying close attention to what happens"
"The department of agriculture, food and the marine confirms that a hearing is scheduled for Carrick-on-Suir district court on Thursday, February 20," the spokesman said.
"Charges are being brought under the Animal Remedies legislation alleging offences relating to possession of animal remedies."
Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan added: "The case involves banned animal remedies. We don’t know yet the precise nature of these products. But we will be paying close attention to what happens."
The department of agriculture’s statement went on to state the potential seriousness of the charges.
"A person who commits one of the offences above is liable on summary conviction to a fine not exceeding €5,000 or to a term of imprisonment not exceeding six months or to both."
Sad news but not entirely surprising.
Even if tested clear, if Last Instalment now wins the Gold Cup there will be questions asked. Wonder if he’ll drift on exchanges.
Value Is EverythingI think his horses should be barred from running until the investigation is complete.
The reports indicate that the seizure was made back in 2012, rather than an recent finding that could implicate recent runs of Last Installment, etc. I would assume that Feb 20th will reveal in exactly what context the seizure was made, and given that it was a Dept. of Agriculture seizure rather than HRI it has no doubt had to go through the various legal procedures before it has come to court. There was a hint a few months ago that there was some sort of drug related concern out there.
Whether there will be a few high profile horses changing stable over the next few weeks we will have to see.
If i know michael o leary gingertipster i think last installment will be drifting out of fentons yard asap
Yes this will not be over quickly – it will be back and forth through the different regulatory bodies. Shouldn’t affect Last Installment and Dunguib at this stage, but you’d be concerned about the mental impact such a scenario could have on a trainer and the team heading into Cheltenham.
My finger is on the trigger for Dunguib – Coral or County – reminiscent of Solwhit last year – Grade 1 winner back to his best
It’s a constant stream now, who’s next to be exposed. I’ve long ago predicted growing exposure.
Whats even more worrying is the Department of Agriculture are taking the case against Fenton not the Turf club begging the question where have they been for the last two years apparently the department have other cases lined up as well but dont worry the turf club are monitoring the situation
I remember months ago Graham Cunningham on The Morning Line saying he’d heard about a drugs scandal going to be let out the bag that Sunday in an Irish Newspaper. Anyone know if anything came of that, or is it this Fenton case?
Value Is EverythingBit choked about this news as I felt quite emotional when I heard about Dunguib winning the other day.
http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-ra … t7DaysNews
Why hasn’t the Irish Turf Club already been in to do these tests on the whole yard?
These drugs were found in
2012
! Why has it taken the case so long to get to court and why was the ITC kept in the dark until the case was due in court?
Did the ITC actually know, but deliberately kept it secret so any tests done on horses at a later date would prove negative? Sweeping the issue under the carpet.
Questions need to be asked of the Department Of Agriculture and Irish Turf Club.
Value Is EverythingThing is …its no good Bha going over to check out these horses , when they are holding a report on the Zarooni case , and will not publish it …….
confidence can only be gained by the actions of those in command , I have no confidence in Bittar or the Bha , so all this is merely posturing to be seen to do something …….
Gosh this whole arena stinks
imo
Thing is …its no good Bha going over to check out these horses , when they are holding a report on the Zarooni case , and will not publish it …….
confidence can only be gained by the actions of those in command , I have no confidence in Bittar or the Bha , so all this is merely posturing to be seen to do something …….
Gosh this whole arena stinks
imo
A fair point Ricky.
Frankly I will be amazed if the BHA inspectors find anything within the Fenton yard. Would they be going over there if Cheltenham was not on the horizon? I very much doubt it. However the BHA do need to be seen to be doing something.
A more consistent approach in the way the BHA treat these cases would not go amiss.
It’s difficult to comment without knowing the whole story. Kevin Blake has wrote his blog on the issue, and he discusses the reasons why the Turf Club have not got involved:
It has been a trying week for Irish racing. No industry wants the sort of coverage that the Philip Fenton case has generated in the last week, especially as we rapidly approach one of our sport’s greatest shop windows, the Cheltenham Festival.
Lot of questions have been raised, very few of which can be answered definitively such has been the poor flow of information from the courts, the Turf Club and the Department of Agriculture, but some general questions and misconceptions can be addressed.
First things first. It has been widely speculated that the Philip Fenton case is connected to the case heard last October in which a retired Department vet was found in possession of various unregistered animal medicines. That case was ultimately dismissed and my information is that the two cases are unrelated.
Secondly, the Turf Club has come in for some stick, primarily from British commentators, for its apparent lack of action with regard to the charges against Philip Fenton and Pat Hughes. However, cases such as these are treated differently in Ireland than in Britain. In Ireland, it is a criminal offence to possess steroids, a law that is in place primarily to protect our agriculture industry, whereas it is not illegal in Britain.
Thus, the BHA can deal with their steroid cases as soon as they see fit, whereas the Turf Club are obliged to wait for the often drawn-out Irish legal system to deal with the cases before they can get involved. For example, if the Turf Club decided to ban Philip Fenton from having runners whilst they waited for his case to conclude and Fenton was found not guilty, they would be vulnerable to a costly claim for damages.
Thirdly, contrary to the apparent public belief, racehorses are not trained solely on hay, oats and water. Veterinary intervention and drugs play extremely important roles in modern training methods. Medications that would trigger a failed drug test on race day are legitimately administered to horses in training on a regular basis in every yard, but these substances have withdrawal periods that must be adhered to so that they won’t turn up in race day samples. Pushing the medication rules to the limit and seeking every legitimate advantage is a big part of the art of racehorse training.
That said, steroids are obviously very different, as they are illegal for use on animals in all bar the most serious medical circumstances in Ireland, but it is important to clarify that the public perception of steroid use leading to hugely over-muscled individuals and significantly improved performance is far from reality in the case of thoroughbred horses. Thoroughbreds are such finely balanced creatures that if given steroids in doses that would prompt significant muscle growth, the consequent extra weight they have to carry would inevitably lead to catastrophic physical breakdowns.
Thus, in thoroughbreds, steroids are not generally seen as performance enhancers, in that it is highly-debatable whether they increase the athletic potential of a racehorse. They are used as training aids, enhancing a horse’s appetite, their ability to recover from work and speeding up the building of muscle and strength. They make the trainer’s job much easier, as they help get horses thriving at a rate that they might not do so naturally, being particularly useful in young horses or with horses that are coming back from injury or a break. Indeed, up until very recently they were a legal and highly-valued medication in leading racing jurisdictions such as America, Australia and the United Arab Emirates.
So, whilst steroids will not turn losers into winners overnight as some media reports would have you believe, they certainly give a significant unfair advantage to a trainer that is using them on their horses. Finding any amount of steroids in a trainer’s yard is very serious and, even if a court case fails to return a conviction, it is inevitable that the trainer’s reputation will be damaged.
The bad publicity which cases like these attract is probably what led Barry Connell to make the remarkable decision to not run The Tullow Tank at the Cheltenham Festival. Some consider it admirable, others consider it a bit needless, but it’s his horse and most can appreciate that if the horse did win at Cheltenham, it would be difficult to enjoy it to the fullest with the inevitable scrutiny on the Fenton story.
Having said that, talk of banning Fenton’s horses from running at Cheltenham is ridiculous in my view. Fenton is innocent until proven guilty.
The main issue here is obviously one of public perception. The Turf Club, the BHA and the racing media have a duty to their sport to try and educate the public with regard to the facts of this case in an effort to counteract the sensationalist coverage that will be generated in some quarters. If there are any PR-friendly actions that can be taken, such as the suggested testing of Fenton’s horses before Cheltenham, then fire away, for all that they are 1/100 to test clean.
One further point to make is that the Turf Club, like the BHA, can only inspect and test horses that are housed on premises licensed by them. With so many horses that run on our tracks having been raised and heavily prepped in unlicensed pre-training yards and studs, we cannot be 100% certain what medications horses have received when out of training. At present, we must rely on the state authorities and customs to do a lot of our police work, but until the Turf Club and the Department of Agriculture work out a means to test horses no matter where they are stabled, the fears that steroid use could be a serious problem in racing will not be fully allayed.
So, what does the future hold? Well, while the public perception is that the Turf Club is sitting on its hands while all this is playing out, all indications are that there is an awful lot going on behind the scenes and that we will be hearing more in the not-too-distant future. Watch this space.
Thanks sir for this , its a brilliant piece
as he says this will run for a while ….meanwhile what does Joe punter think of the racing scene while this lot kicks off
not a great advert for the sport going forward is it !!!
imo
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