UK NEWS

BAN AND A £40K FINE FOR THE TRAINER WHO DOPED QUEEN’S HORSE

TRAINER: Nicky Henderson

Saturday July 4,2009

By Richard Palmer, Royal Correspondent

THE Queen’s racing trainer was yesterday banned for three months and fined a record £40,000 for doping one of her horses.

Nicky Henderson was found guilty of administering a prohibited substance to the mare Moonlit Path.

The two-time champion National Hunt trainer, who won £2m prize money last season, will not be able to run any horses from July 11 to October 10.

The National Hunt season begins in earnest in October and the ban will start its main meetings.

In a scandal that has shocked the racing establishment and embarrassed the monarch, Henderson, 58, was found guilty last month of administering the prohibited anti-bleeding drug tranexamic acid to Moonlit Path before she finished sixth in her debut race at Huntingdon in February.

He insisted the medication was used for the horse’s welfare and not to improve her performance.

Henderson, whose fine is twice the previous record penalty, learned of his punishment yesterday after offering a plea of mitigation to a British Horse Racing Authority panel personal hearing on Thursday evening.

He described it as “harsh” but said he would abide by the ruling.

The panel accepted the drug was unlikely to enhance the mare’s performance.

But the affair has raised questions over Henderson’s long-term standing in the sport and with the Royal Family.

The Queen, a lifelong racing enthusiast, has 41 horses with different trainers. Moonlit Path is one of a number trained by Henderson, a four-times winner of the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham.

They include Barbers Shop, placed seventh in this year’s Cheltenham Gold Cup.

Senior advisers to the Queen will have to decide whether to continue supporting Henderson, a pillar of the racing establishment.