IHRB has put its neck on the line with Petrol Head decision - and it now has one big question to answer

The withdrawal of well-backed favourite Petrol Head from last week’s Galway Hurdle overshadowed the big race and the saga is set to run and run over the coming months.

Petrol Head was one of the horses central to the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s case against his previous owner and trainer Ronan McNally, which resulted in McNally getting a 12-year ban for integrity breaches with the final four years suspended on appeal. After a long layoff, the eight-year-old had won twice for Katy Brown, most recently at Bellewstown last month, and was backed from 16-1 to 5-1 for the Galway Hurdle, but was not allowed to run by the IHRB after it emerged he had tested positive for a prohibited substance at Bellewstown.

Many drew parallels with the Flemensface case last year, when the IHRB allowed the horse to run in and win a bumper despite testing positive for clenbuterol and after his trainer passed over the option of getting the B sample tested, because the case had not been heard. This fiasco resulted in Lucinda Russell and Peter Scudamore having to send back a horse they spent £100,000 on.