Criquette Head and John Gosden in call for universal drug-free racing

Two of Europe’s most successful trainers with international reputations, Criquette Head and John Gosden, have urged every jurisdiction to adopt drug-free racing.

Speaking to delegates at the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities conference in Paris, Head, whose Group 1 successes stretched from North America to Singapore before she retired in 2018, said: “The situation in the US is terrible. We have to be drug-free. A trainer should be a trainer, not a chemist.”

She added: “We have to work hard to be drug-free. We have shown that you can win races without drugs.”

In a pre-recorded interview, Gosden, who on Sunday joined Head as the trainer of a dual Prix de l’Arc Triomphe winning mare foiled at the third attempt, tackled the question of clean competition by saying: “There should be a level playing field, and I am strongly in favour of pre-race testing. The integrity of the sport is everything.”

Turning specifically to the US, where he started his training career, Gosden added: “You cannot think it’s fine for horses to be intravenously injected on the day of the race or the day before. There has to be a strict limitation of the rules.

“It’s up to everyone to decide what is right for the horse and work backwards from there. Once that is put in as the principal objective, you bring people with you.”

On the topic of attracting a younger audience to racing, Gosden said: “Horseracing is an entertainment, and if you lose sight of that, you lose people. In the UK we have a lot of people in their 20s and 30s who like going racing as a social event. Racecourses have woken up to that fact, and we need to work hand in hand with them and the racing authorities.”

Head added: “Before, racing was a hobby; now everybody wants to make money. It’s important for trainers to open their stables, as I did with Treve. She made me look good; I made her look good.

“You have to share these elite horses with everyone. But if it’s a claimer, you train him just the same, to do his best. To win a race with a claimer is to win his Arc.”

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