Blame for trainers falling into careless habits falls at the regulator's door

The positive slant on Irish racing's regulator unearthing 21 positive tests in the first nine months of the year is that of a robust testing system working well.

However, context is imperative. In Britain, where 9,123 raceday tests were undertaken in 2017, just 16 positive tests – 0.17 per cent – were returned. In each of the past three years in Ireland there have been five positives from a maximum of 4,094 tests, which is last year's overall total including out-of-competition testing. That equates to 0.12 per cent.

Now, all of a sudden, we already have 21 positives. That's more than the whole of Britain in 2017 from a third of the samples. At an estimate of 3,000 samples so far, that's 0.7 per cent.