'Sledgehammer to crack a walnut' says trainer fined £2,700 over test from 2020

Mike Smith has accused the BHA of using "a sledgehammer to crack a walnut" after a disciplinary panel fined the trainer £2,700 over a positive test returned by a runner at Redcar in November 2020.

He injected Real Smooth with the analgesic Buscopan Compositum three days before the race, fearing the horse might be suffering early symptoms of colic, but the drug was detected by a raceday test.

Charlotte Davison for the BHA told the panel Smith should not have given a prescription-only medicine without a prescription and without prior advice from a vet. Moreover, he used an intramuscular injection when only intravenous use is recommended for Buscopan in horses; Davison added intravenous injections should only be made by vets.

Smith acknowledged the method of administration as a mistake but defended his decision to act, at a weekend when he said it would have been hard to get a vet to his Ayrshire yard. He argued his diagnostic ability with racehorses was sound and that he had made the right decision as Real Smooth recovered in just a few hours.

"I think it's absolutely ridiculous," he said. "It's taken them two years to do it, they're persecuting me for doing something that worked. What chance have you got?

"Okay, I'm wrong because I used the wrong method but if you're stuck miles from anywhere, what do you do? I've worked with horses since I was five, or younger.

Redcar: where Real Smooth (not pictured) failed a raceday test in 2020Credit: Pool

"I can't help thinking it's a sledgehammer to crack a walnut. The horse wasn't harmed in the slightest. He was absolutely fine."

The panel took into account that Smith had suffered by having to wait so long for a hearing and reduced his fine from the £3,600 they would otherwise have imposed.

Asked about the delay, Davison told the panel: "This happened during a time of Covid while people were probably still being furloughed. All investigations, unfortunately, during the past two years have been delayed. It's something the BHA is, of course, working to remedy but we have to accept two years is too long."

Smith argued he had abided by a 72-hour detection time for the drug, published by the BHA. However, the BHA's director of equine welfare, James Given, noted detection times are not the same as withdrawal times and that the drug could take longer to leave a horse's system, depending on circumstances. He also noted the detection time had been based on intravenous injection rather than the method used on Real Smooth.

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