Dermot Weld, the trainer of the Derby winner Harzand, said on Thursday that he will consider an appeal against a €1,000 fine imposed by the Irish Turf Club’s referrals committee after one of his horses failed a post-race drugs test.
A post-race sample from Va Pensiero, a filly who was first past the post in a race at Dundalk on 13 May, was found to contain the banned substance 3-Hydroxy Lidocaine, a metabolite of Lidocaine, which is often used in racing stables as a local anaesthetic.
Weld, who is a qualified vet, told a hearing of the referrals committee – the equivalent of the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary panel – that he was mystified as to how the substance could have been in Va Pensiero’s system. Describing her as “a tough horse who is very sound”, Weld said that she had never received any medication and that he was “completely puzzled” by the positive test.
The committee also heard evidence from Joe O’Donnell, Weld’s vet, that the levels of 3-Hydroxy Lidocaine found in Va Pensiero suggested that she had been administered Lidocaine shortly before her race. However, he also confirmed Weld’s evidence that no medications had ever been administered to Va Pensiero.
Andrew Tyrrell, the Turf Club’s veterinary officer, told the hearing that he had inspected Weld’s medicines register at his stable on The Curragh and found that it was “meticulously kept”. He also testified that he had found no evidence of Lidocaine ever being administered to a horse in Weld’s yard.
“I’m completely baffled by the whole business and I’m seriously considering appealing the fine,” Weld said after the hearing. “That’s all I have to say on the matter.”
Va Pensiero, a two-length winner of the race, was disqualified and placed last with Power Struggle promoted from second to first. She has not raced since.
Frankie Dettori made a rare visit to Yarmouth racecourse on Thursday afternoon and returned home to Newmarket with a double from four rides, including a 9-1 success on Marco Botti’s Shahbar in a nine-furlong handicap. Dettori, who had a total of six rides and three winners at the track in 2014 and 2015, also came home in front on John Gosden’s Nobly Born, a 4-6 chance for a novice stakes event at the top of the card.
Yarmouth was closed to allow the track to be relaid in the autumn of 2014, and then closed again until this season following problems with the turf during heavy rain at its flagship meeting in September 2015.
“They had a few issues with the bends because the grass was not settled,” Dettori, who rode the outstanding Dubai Millennium to win his maiden at Yarmouth in 1998, said afterwards, “but it seems to be okay now they have had a few races back on it. Let’s now move forward and get Yarmouth back going again.”
Silvestre de Sousa, who will start a 12-day suspension for a series of whip offences on Friday, also recorded a winner on the card as Mithqaal edged home by a neck in a one-mile handicap. De Sousa will start his ban with an 11-winner lead over Ryan Moore in the race for the Flat jockeys’ championship.
Nightflower, whose trainer Peter Schiergen saddled the outstanding filly Danedream to win the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe and King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes at Ascot, is a 7-1 chance for Saturday’s Group Two Lancashire Oaks after attracting support on Thursday.
Nightflower, a daughter of Dylan Thomas out of a Peintre Celebre mare, took the Group One Preis Von Europa at Cologne last September and also holds an entry in the Group One Yorkshire Oaks at York in August.
