RACING

ROYAL TRAINER GIVEN RECORD FINE AND BAN

MAXED OUT: Nicky Henderson in trouble

Saturday July 4,2009

By Rolf Johnson, The Scout

ROYAL trainer Nicky Henderson has been banned from entering his horses for three months and fined a record £40,000.

Henderson’s defence against charges that he administered Transexamic Acid (TA) to the Queen’s Moonlit Path on her debut over hurdles was that it was done for the mare’s welfare.

Moonlit Path is a bleeder, she bursts blood vessels. She was routine tested at Huntingdon on February 19 and the prohibited drug was found in her system.

Her Majesty’s racing advisor Sir Michael Oswald said: “We are disappointed. We will obviously discuss it.”

Paul Struthers, spokesman for the BHA, said: “This is substantial. He has made his mistake and received his penalty.

We must police the sport effectively (and) whatever the newspapers make of the penalty they are the next day’s chip paper.”

True, but they will form people’s opinions on whether the punishment has fitted the crime – whether it is in line with Fergal Lynch’s £40,000 fine for stopping horses and Darren Williams’ three-month ban for reward for giving information to a disqualified person.

Or indeed, last week’s two-year ban for trainer Matt Gingell, who admitted to giving his horses ‘milkshakes’ based on sodium bicarbonate – an illegal way of providing horses with extra energy.

Statistics say Henderson, no great supporter of summer jumping, will have few runners in the ban period. But that’s not the point.

A former champion trainer, respected throughout his profession has, aided and abetted by his vet James Main who is veterinary advisor to the National Trainers Federation, been found guilty under Rules 53, 221 and 200.

The stain on his character is indelible.

The Panel, shrinking from the responsibility of either calling Henderson a liar or exonerating him for trying to do the best for Moonlit Path, said: “Henderson intended to affect performance but only in a limited sense.”

They went on to state, (there is) “no way of knowing how many times the drug was used by Henderson and Main, his vet.”

The difference between performance affecting and performance enhancing is as fine as a spider’s web and as tricky to negotiate. If Moonlit Path was in such need of assistance to enable her to perform, it was surely better she should not have raced at all.