Billionaire businessman v IHRB - appeal into Luke Comer doping scandal set to begin on Wednesday morning

The next chapter of one of the biggest doping scandals in the history of the sport is set to begin on Wednesday morning as billionaire businessman and trainer Luke Comer goes head-to-head with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board in an appeal at the regulator's headquarters on the Curragh after both parties were unsatisfied with the initial penalties imposed.

The original hearing was held last May and lasted nine days, after which Comer had his training licence suspended for three years and was ordered to pay €840,754 in fines and costs after a dozen of his horses tested positive for anabolic steroids.

Those punishments did not satisfy the IHRB, though, and the regulator decided to appeal against the decision on the grounds of undue leniency. Comer also lodged an appeal of his own, so the stage is now set for the next chapter of the saga that has rocked Irish racing.

The appeals panel will be made up of Justice Peter Kelly, Laurence McFerran and Dr Paddy Molony.

Among the 12 horses in which traces of methandienone (MD) and methyltestosterone (MT) were found was He Knows No Fear, the longest-priced winner in the history of racing in Ireland or Britain at 300-1 at Leopardstown in 2020.

He Knows No Fear had a hair sample taken from him in the aftermath of the Listed Trigo Stakes at Leopardstown in October 2021, a race in which he finished fourth of 14, and it was found to contain MD and MT.

The remaining 11 horses who also returned positives for anabolic steroids were tested out of competition at Comer's yard in November 2021, as was He Knows No Fear. The horses who tested positive were Old Tom Higgins, Boxing Hero, Grand D'Espagne, Aircraft Carrier, Powerful Don, Wee Jim, Great Moon, Our Man Flint, Questionare, Green Force and Blyton.

Comer has been a huge sponsor in Irish racing over the last decade and the Irish St Leger at the Curragh, won by Eldar Eldarov last year, was sponsored by the trainer's Comer Group International, a major property development firm he has built up with his brother Brian.

Comer denies that he or any of his staff were involved in doping the dozen horses and he was not charged with a breach of rule 273, which covers anybody who "administers, or attempts to administer, or connives at the administration, to a horse of any prohibited substance".

The report from the original hearing stated that Comer spent an "enormous sum of money" trying to establish how his horses came to test positive for anabolic steroids, but the committee was still unable to say how it happened. The trainer argued that environmental contamination was the most plausible reason for the analytical findings and he suggested hay consumed by his horses may have been contaminated with MD or MT, or both, through pig slurry.

The hearing is set to begin at around 10am on Wednesday morning and is expected to last a couple of days.

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Huge doping scandal hits Ireland as billionaire businessman Luke Comer banned for three years and hit with fines and costs of €840,754

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