Trainer Willie Mullins fined and horse disqualified — BBC Sport

In the United Kingdom, an independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority fined trainer Willie Mullins £1,100 and disqualified the horse Final Demand from a race at the Cheltenham Festival. A prohibited Category B substance, mepivacaine, was found in the animal's system.

Panel's decision

Final Demand finished second in the Grade One Brown Advisory Novices' Chase on 11 March. As BBC Sport reports, the panel found that the horse competed with mepivacaine in its system. The drug is a local anaesthetic commonly used to treat racehorses.

The panel also noted that Mullins had not declared the use of mepivacaine on the medical forms submitted before the race. At the same time, expert evidence indicated that the low dose of the substance entered the horse's system very close to the time the sample was taken.

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Video recording was not retained

The investigation did not establish exactly how mepivacaine entered Final Demand's system, given the precautions in place at the premises where the horse was kept. The chair of the judicial panel, Sarah Crowther KC, said there was no reason to believe that Mullins or his staff knew about the administration of the drug, while the British Horseracing Authority deemed the precautions taken sufficient.

During the review, it emerged that CCTV footage from the premises where the horse was kept had not been retained: the hard drive containing the video was lost. Crowther stressed that the significance of this fact should not be overstated, as by the time the dose entered the horse's system, it had already been moved to another stable, recordings from which were obtained and reviewed. Cheltenham was fined £5,000 for breaching the rule on retaining recordings.