Al Zarooni Banned For Eight Years

Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni has been given an eight year ban from racing by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) for administering prohibited anabolic steroids to 15 horses in his care.

The BHA held a hearing on Thursday 25 April 2013 at which the case was heard. As well as handing out the ban to Al Zarooni the BHA also prohibited the 15 horses from running for six months until 9 October 2013.

Jamie Stier, Director of Raceday Operations and Regulation at the BHA, explained: "The length of suspension reflects the period beyond which the BHA is confident that the horses in question can have derived no performance-related benefit from the administration of these prohibited substances."

The banned horses include: Artigiano, Certify, Opinion Poll, and Valley of Queens.

Simon Crisford, Godolphin racing manager, stated: "This is a terrible situation. It's an awful situation that Godolphin has found themselves in. Mr Al Zarooni acted with awful recklessness and caused tremendous damage, not only to Godolphin and British racing. I think it will take a very long time for Godolphin to regain the trust of the British public. We're shocked and completely outraged by the actions he has taken."

The speed with which the authorities have acted has been taken as a move to limit the damage this doping episode has caused to the integrity of British racing. UK bookmakers have also played their part in trying to limit the impact of the scandal by refunding ante-post bets on the horses involved in the ban, particularly Certify who was entered for the 1000 Guineas.

Sample Irregularities Rule Certify Out Of 1000 Guineas

Godolphin’s unbeaten filly Certify will not contest the Qipco 1000 Guineas at Newmarket next month after “serious irregularities” were found in samples taken from horses trained by Mahmood Al Zarooni in Newmarket.

Simon Crisford, Godolphin’s racing manager, stated: “This is a dark day for Godolphin. We are all shocked by what has happened. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed was absolutely appalled when he was told and this is completely unacceptable to him. We will await the outcome of the BHA inquiry before taking any further internal action. Sheikh Mohammed has instructed me to begin an urgent review of all of our procedures and controls. That is already underway and we will take advice from the BHA in completing it."

A press release from the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) gave further details of the testing that had taken place. Samples were taken from 45 horses trained by Al Zarooni on 9 April 2013 and it was discovered that 11 samples tested positive for either Ethylestranol or Stanozolol, both of which are anabolic steroids and classed as prohibited substances.