Fenton focusing on quality not quantity as he prepares to return from drugs ban

Philip Fenton said on Tuesday he would focus on quality not quantity as he prepares to saddle his first runner since serving a three-year ban for the possession of anabolic steroids.

The trainer has entered Secret Cargo in a bumper at Killarney on Thursday but said he would have just a small number of horses this year.

Killarney bumper entries

He said about his return: "I wouldn’t say I’m excited. It’s just about getting back into the same thing again. There isn’t much excitement.

"We have only a handful of horses in. We’ve had some nice horses down the years and I’m sure we’ll have some nice ones again. We’d rather have quality than quantity and that’s what we’re going to be focusing on."

A former leading amateur rider, Fenton has trained some top-notch performers, including Dunguib, who won the 2009 Champion Bumper at Cheltenham.

Dunguib lands the 2009 Champion Bumper for trainer Philip FentonCredit: Mark Cranham

He became the first Irish trainer to be convicted of possessing anabolic steroids after officials from the Department of Agriculture discovered the prohibited substances at his yard in January 2012.

They found a kilogram of Nitrotain and a 20ml bottle of Ilium Stanabolic, both anabolic steroids and illegal for use on horses in Ireland. Fenton pleaded guilty to three breaches of rules 25a, 272, and 273 XIII.

Asked how much interest he took in racing during his ban, Fenton said: "The time went very quickly. We've been keeping an eye on things and there’s been plenty of horses here for sale, so we were well set up in that sense.

"We’ve got lots of young stock – three-year-olds and two-year-olds – so we were never that far away from it."

Fenton, who will continue to concentrate on jumps racing, has trained big-race winners for major owners such as Gigginstown House Stud, Barry Connell and JP McManus but it remains to be seen which owners, if any, have returned to the Tipperary handler.

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