Irish racing insisted Jim Bolger was wrong on doping - but scandals like Flemensface make it hard to defend

Seven years have passed since the original iteration of Irish racing’s anti-doping taskforce, convened in the wake of the anabolic steroids scandal of nearly a decade ago, was disbanded.

It is often conveniently forgotten now, but the taskforce made a headline recommendation of lifetime bans for horses who test positive for substances that are “prohibited at all times”, chiefly anabolic steroids.

In the case of Turbine, who tested positive for nandrolone after winning on the Flat for Denis Hogan at Cork in 2019, that didn’t happen. Nor did it happen after Druim Samhraidh tested positive for boldenone following a Ballinrobe bumper win for David Dunne in 2020, and nor did it happen when a dozen of Luke Comer’s horses were found with anabolic steroids in their system. It is not exactly the zero tolerance we were promised with great zeal by the former Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) boss Denis Egan.