McGuinness case looks bad so why didn't the IHRB publish crucial test results?

Irish racing has spent much of the last couple of years putting out hapless regulatory fires and defending its reputation against accusations of a rampant doping culture. At some stage you would like to think it would help itself, but change is glacial in this game.

The latest head-in-hands instalment came this week when it emerged that Ado McGuiness had been fined €750 after Laugh A Minute was not presented for a post-race dope test after finishing down the field in the Rockingham at the Curragh on the Sunday of Irish Derby weekend.

It is a sanction that seems to have been reduced to an innocuous technical breach, McGuinness ultimately getting sanctioned for “failing to comply with a reasonable request or instruction from a racing official”.