Ado McGuinness fined €750 after horse fails to appear for post-race test

Ado McGuinness has been fined €750 after his Rockingham Handicap runner Laugh A Minute failed to report for a post-race test, with the Group 1-winning trainer citing "a complete breakdown of communications".

IHRB head of anti-doping and chief veterinary officer Dr Lynn Hillyer was in the process of conducting pre-race tests ahead of the premier handicap when she noticed a venepuncture (the puncture of a vein, typically to draw a blood sample) with traces of blood on Laugh A Minute. The matter "concerned her as it appeared to be relatively recent".

In discussions with Hillyer and IHRB stipendiary steward Peter Matthews, McGuinness explained prior to the race that his 25-1 shot had received the infusion fluid Duphalyte from his veterinary surgeon on the evening before "as he can be a very nervous horse when travelling".

McGuinness was said to have acknowledged a requirement from Hillyer and Matthews that a full regulatory sample would be taken from Laugh A Minute post-race. However, Hillyer was contacted by a member of the IHRB veterinary team 30 minutes after off-time to say Laugh A Minute, who finished 11th, had not been presented for testing.

Laugh A Minute: finished 11th in the Paddy Power Rockingham HandicapCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

CCTV footage showed McGuinness' three Rockingham runners had left the stable yard three minutes earlier.

Apologising for the confusion caused, McGuinness accepted the evidence as given by Hillyer and suggested the matter was a complete breakdown of communications on the day, adding he "failed to relay this information to his staff as he felt that they would be informed by members of the IHRB veterinary team or security team".

With three runners in the Rockingham he said his engagement with his staff at this time was minimal, and he was later dealing with owners so didn’t return to the stable yard. McGuinness "never questioned if the horse was post-race sampled".

Having failed to comply with a "reasonable request or instruction from a racing official", the Dublin-based trainer was fined €750.

Trainer Sarah Dawson was also hit with a €2,000 fine after two of her runners at Dundalk barrier trials last September tested positive for omeprazole, described as "a proton pump inhibitor commonly used in the treatment and prophylaxis of gastric ulceration".

Though the substance appears in several products licensed for use in Ireland, it is prohibited on raceday due to having "an effect on a body system".

A likely source for the post-race positive was identified in that Carla's Kodi Bear and La Valeureuse, who both finished last, were being administered a product containing omeprazole at the time of the trials.

Sarah Dawson: fined €2,000 by the IHRB over barrier trial testsCredit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

As a result, Dawson was found not to have taken all reasonable precautions to avoid a positive test as an insufficient withdrawal period was observed.

The County Down-based trainer said that due to her own gallop being very small, she needs to travel her horses more often than most trainers to use larger facilities. This, she suggested, "may be one reason many of her horses appear to suffer from ulcers".

Point-to-point handler Tom Geoghegan was also handed a €1,000 fine and his Oldcastle winner Mick Mixy was disqualified after testing positive for tetramisole.

Hillyer described the substance as "an isomer of levamisole, an anthelmintic 'wormer' for cattle/sheep used off-label as an immunostimulant in horses".

Geoghegan accepted he had breached the rules and "deeply regretted" the situation but stated he was "unclear how the adverse analytical finding had presented itself", with the only suggestion he could offer being that he had administered Levasol to his cattle, potentially leading to cross contamination.

Whinny Island, trained by Cian Collins, has now been promoted to first in the point-to-point maiden for horses aged six and older.

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