Tony Martin bumper winner disqualified and trainer fined a total of €1,750

Tony Martin has been fined a total of €1,750 and Patsy's Honour has been disqualified from a Down Royal bumper he won in January after testing positive for triamcinolone acetonide, which is used to treat skin conditions and banned on racedays.

Patsy's Honour was administered with ten milligrams of the medication on December 21, as well as 20 milligrams of Mepidor, a medication containing the local anaesthetic mepivacaine. The horse had surgery previously as a yearling for osteochondritis dissecans in the stifle.

Martin had left a withdrawal time of 34 days but the drug still showed up in Patsy's Honour's sample on the day of the race on January 25.

Dr Lynn Hillyer, head of anti-doping and chief veterinary officer for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, said there were a number of possible explanations as to why the medication was present in the blood sample a month after the treatment.

She said the medication was administered into stifles, which are known to be complex joints. Alternatively, it was possible that it was not administered into the joint but instead into some denser tissue from which its excretion was prolonged, or that the other drugs administered on the same day interfered with its excretion and that the gelding’s pre-existing joint pathology prolonged the excretion of the triamcinolone acetonide.

In the hearing, Martin explained that he had considered a number of entries for the horse but waited 34 days following treatment before running the six-year-old at Down Royal.

Having considered the evidence, Laurence McFerran, chairman of the referrals committee, said they did not believe to be any malice intended on the part of Martin but fined him €1,500 as he was responsible for the welfare, training and running of all horses under his care.

During an unannounced inspection of Martin's stable on February 14 this year, the medicines register was reviewed and, while there was evidence of records being kept, a period between December 18 and January 3 had no records. Martin was fined a further €250 for that breach.

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