Cocaine case shows why the BHA must think again about its penalties - did it really intend to be so harsh?

Zero tolerance on drugs, it's so easy to say. But in the context of horseracing, it's a war that's quite difficult to wage, unless you're comfortable with the regulatory equivalent of firing your howitzer at the side of a building because there's a bad guy in there somewhere.

That was my main thought in the wake of this week's story about Ed Dunlop being clobbered with a one-year ban because a filly from his yard tested positive for what was described as "a small amount" of cocaine after finishing second at Brighton. How horse and drug were introduced to each other remains a mystery – perhaps there is one person out there who has an inkling, perhaps not.

At any rate, there was a two-hour hearing during which nothing was said which indicated to me that Dunlop had done anything wrong. He had taken reasonable precautions to prevent his horses ingesting some banned substance through contamination, although of course there's always more that could be done.