Ireland's trainers seek fairness in pre-race test regime after cobalt positive

The Irish Racehorse Trainers Association has said it will cooperate fully with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board with regards to pre-race testing but insisted every horse in a race will need to be tested in the interest of fairness.

Michael Grassick, chief executive of the IRTA, was responding to claims that one of its members denied the IHRB veterinary team access to one of their horses prior to racing at Dundalk in early February. In the weeks previous, the trainer had a positive test returned from one of his winners for elevated levels of cobalt.

Michael Grassick: “If they were doing it properly and had skilled horse people doing the job, we would have no problem whatsoever with scanning before a race. In fact, we'd welcome it.'Credit: Patrick McCann (racingpost.com/photos)

Of the insistence that all horses in a given race are tested rather than any being singled out, Grassick said: “That is true, and I have written to the IHRB’s chief executive Denis Egan and to the chief veterinary officer Lynn Hillyer asking them to explain what happened at that meeting."