Anyone considering themselves a racing fan would have been sitting up and paying attention to Jim Bolger's allegations that a serious horse doping problem exists within Irish racing, for one cannot do otherwise but believe that the veteran handler has a feed of information from what he knows to be reliable sources that he has trust in.
Bolger does not come across as a character who would be taken in by exaggerated gossip, neither does he strike you as somebody who would come out unto the open and make accusations unless being a hundred per cent convinced that they were fully truthful.
It was actually quite eerie in one podcast when the trainer was asked would any of the drug cheats be represented at Royal Ascot, and he responded with ," I haven't looked at the fields yet so I can't tell you that", a comment that would have had many mentally drawing up their own short list of suspects.
When the Kilkenny handler made similar noises last year and made a call for equine hair testing to act as a deterrent to, as well as catching cheats, the fact that he made reference to studs, pre training yards and pinhookers, made one believe that the problem may lie in the area of sales preparation - we all had heard of the stories back in the 1980's when some fantastic looking specimens bought at the USA yearling sales would, after being bought, begin to mysteriously lose condition.
However, judging by the comments Bolger made last week no one can doubt that he was insunuating that the problem is also very much connected to horses in training, and during their preparations for contests.
We know the names of trainers whose charges have tested positive for illegal substances, then have offered the 'usual' excuses - such as the dosage was given to the wrong horse, or found its way into the feed, cross contamination, acting on irresponsible veterinary advice and all that, and in each case the punishment handed out could be construed as being lenient.
Particularly when compared to the eight year ban handed to Mahmood Al Zarooni by the UK authorities after having eleven out of forty five animals tested on site at his yard, return positive results for anabolic steroids. In handing the ban, a statement was issued to the effect that the evidence pointed to him acting alone - something many would firmly have come to their own conclusion about.
In the months following Al Zarooni's ban, the Veterinary Medicines Directorate made a seizure at Stansted Airport, from a Dubai Air Wings jet, which comprised of large quantities of drugs that could be used as illegal performance enhancers on racehorses. The BHA made a statement saying that they did not believe the discovery had any connection to racing or were intended for use on thoroughbreds.
The Godolphin operation is now balanced massively in racing from their own breeding operation, supported by some yearling sales purchases, when in years gone by it had been a mix of this with ready made in racing purchases from other yards, some being spectacularly successful when switched to Saeed Bin Suroor.
The French 2,000 Guineas winner Daylami just did not appeal as one who would end up as a middle distance colt out of the top drawer, yet he turned into one the most successful performers of the 1990's, his King George success being one of the most memorable moments of the decade. When Swain had been with Andre Fabre, he looked a stayer, a bit of a plodder in fact, when finishing fourth in the Arc, appealing as one who was ideal for the Cup races. Winning two King George's was not what anyone would have envisaged.
Then another ex Andre Fabre animal, Doyen, who had also finished a one paced fourth in the Arc. Under Suroor he would route his opponents in the Hardwicke before following up with another impressive success in the King George. And Fantastic Light, from Stoute to Suroor, progressing into a genuine top class colt as shown in those two memorable battles with Galileo, even coming out on top in the second one at Leopardstown.
There were many others too. Then, for some reason, the successes stopped coming with the same regularity and the modus operandi was not working anymore. And now with a breeding operation in better shape than they've ever had it, led by their flagship sire Dubawi, the old methods that served them well before they lost the midas touch with, are now not needed.
Returning to the alleged problem in Ireland. While we can fairly accurately guess who a few of the trainers are on account of them already having faced disciplinary action, there are most certainly many more. The subject is covered in fine detail in the William Jones book, The Black Horse Is Dying, which also reveals that when investigators from the Irish Agricultural Department raided the home of one of their former veterinary inspectors, John Hughes, they found large quantities of illegal drugs that have been known to be effective performance boosters when administered to racehorses.
They also found a client list of twenty trainers. The names of these trainers have never been released and it amounts to a bit of speculating and piecing together jigsaws, though at the end of the day we have no idea what they would have purchased and why, thus can't suddenly assume that all had subscriptions for magic carrots.
Still, the mystery stirs up the imagination and we have to accept that there exists in the loop bodies of people who will know what is going on and who has, or is doing what. No doubt, Bolger is in the loop and is hoping alleged misdeeds will eventually come out in the wash - in the meantime those with an enthusiastic interest in the sport will be left trying to join the dots together.
In the music world the 1980's fell way below the 1970's, with each individual year of the 1970's offering more than the whole of the following decade which was full of nausua inducing schmaltzy outfits - though not this talented individual who was even better than he had been during the previous decade. For horse racing, the 1980's was the last decade before things went downhill. This single was released during Royal Ascot week in 1982.
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