TODAY Hughie Morrison has the chance to finally answer a charge laid by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) six months previously.
The hearing has been scheduled for two days and should provide answers to the questions it has raised.
One which might be of interest to many is just why the horse whose post-race dope test sparked the investigation was tested in the first place?
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Morrison’s case revolves around a horse called Our Little Sister who tested positive for the banned substance nandrolone following a race at Wolverhampton on January 14.
Morrison was charged in May as being in breach of Rule (G) 2.1 “by nature of the fact that nandrolone and its metabolite, both prohibited substances, were found in Our Little Sister’s urine sample”.
In 2016 there were 89,616 runners contesting 10,035 races held in Britain, with a total 8,455 post-race dope tests which resulted in 20 positives.
That means not all winners were tested although they and those horses who finished placed appear to be the lion’s share of those tested along with favourites who run unaccountably poorly.
The rest are made up of those chosen at random or are the subject of “target testing”. There are no specific records available publicly as to the numbers for each category.
The BHA will not comment upon a current case but when referring to anti-doping the Authority’s website states that the “BHA uses an intelligence system based on the Police National Intelligence Model, which set standards for process, professionalism, fairness and confidentiality.”
In its document on equine anti-doping rules it says that “testing may be conducted at any time and at any place, including testing on a raceday and testing out-of-competition. The selection of horses for testing may either be random or based on target testing.”
Intelligence, in terms of information, might be an explanation for why Our Little Sister was tested. The filly had been beaten in all nine career starts and had never been the favourite for any of those races.
Furthermore, Morrison has never had a horse fail a dope test in more than 20 years as a trainer. Morrison has stated that the doping was an act of sabotage but, under BHA rules, he must prove that while the BHA needs only to show the positive result to prove its case relying on its strict liability approach to such cases.
It is perhaps only once removed from the last century when the Jockey Club routinely banned trainers for life if one of their horses was found to be have been doped, regardless of whether they were complicit in the act.
If Morrison’s contention is true it would seem a great coincidence that the horse was dope tested based on nothing more than a process of random selection. If it was based on intelligence then can it be ruled out that the information could have been provided by the doper to ensure the doping was uncovered?
The answer to that question would be very interesting. Silver Concorde, winner of 2014 Champion Bumper for Dermot Weld, won for a second time at Musselburgh yesterday for new trainer Keith Dalgleish.
Silver Concorde was sent off the 1-10 favourite for the Jump To It And Join Racing UK Novices’ Hurdle and won by 12 lengths ridden by Brian Hughes