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Trainer Charles Byrnes has had his licence withdrawn for six months after regulatory authorities found a runner saddled by the Co. Limerick handler in Tramore in 2018 had been “nobbled” with a sedative.
Drug testing on the Byrnes trained Viking Hoard after it ran in a handicap hurdle at Tramore on October 18th, 2018 found a positive result for the prohibited substance hydroxyethyl promazine, a metabolite of acepromazine (ACP.)
Levels discovered in the horse represented a “dangerous degree of sedation” according to the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board’s head of anti-doping, Dr Lynn Hillyer in evidence to a Referrals Committee hearing chaired by Mr Justice Tony Hunt earlier this month.
ACP is a sedative that becomes active within 15-30 minutes of administration and lasts up to seven hours.
It emerged too on Tuesday morning that the committee also heard evidence into betting patterns on the race from commercial betting exchanges.
The information indicated there was “a substantial lay bet on the Tramore race, with a potential liability of €34,889 if the gelding won. The sum was risked to win €3,200. This represented 50 per cent of the relevant exchange market.”
Evidence was heard about betting patterns on two other races Viking Hoard had run in prior to racing at Tramore.
The Referrals panel said in its findings that there is no evidence to connect Byrnes with these betting patterns.
However it said they were part of the “full and relevant context to the events of October 18th, 2018 at Tramore and informed the subsequent investigation into those events.”
It also said it approached the case on the interpretation of the evidence that was “reasonably open and most favourable to Mrs Byrnes, that being that Viking Hoard was ‘nobbled’ by an unidentified third party at a time when the gelding was left unaccompanied” at the races in Tramore.
Although not alleged to be involved directly in the administration of ACP, the committed did however point to Byrnes’s “neglect” in the horse being left unattended for a significant period while it was in the stableyard at Tramore.
That neglect, they said, “facilitated what was clearly organised pre-race doping of his charge.”
The committee also said the “deliberate doping of Viking Hoard close to race times in this case could not conceivably have been a casual or opportunistic event.”
It concluded it was most likely that ACP was administered to Viking Hoard in the hours immediately prior to the race.
During the time of possible administration the horse was under the direct care of Brynes and his son, Cathal, either in transit to the racecourse or in the stable yard.
The committee found that Byrnes was “seriously negligent” in the supervision of Viking Hoard on the day at Tramore.
It found Byrnes in breach of Rule 96(a) as a prohibited substance was present in the sample taken from Viking Hoard and imposed a sanction of six months withdrawal of Byrnes licence to train. He was also fined €1,000.
When contacted on Tuesday morning, Byrnes indicated he will appeal the findings but wouldn’t comment further.
“I’m going to appeal it, that’s all,” he said.