Mahmood Al Zarooni

Overthelast

Fairly big news. Reckon he'll get the boot from Goldolphin.

From Racing Post

Al Zarooni faces BHA disciplinary hearing after positive drug tests

BY TONY SMURTHWAITE 6:33PM 22 APR 2013

GODOLPHIN trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni faces the loss of his licence after admitting being in breach of the rules of racing following the discovery of anabolic steroids in samples taken from a number of his horses including top-class filly Certify.

The unbeaten Group 1 winner will not now be allowed to run in the Qipco 1,000 Guineas at Newmarket on May 5 for which she was a 7-1 fourth favourite.

"This is a dark day for Godolphin," said racing manager Simon Crisford.

Following an inspection of Al Zarooni's stables at Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket by officials from the BHA, traces of prohibited substances were discovered in a number of the horses tested, including Certify.

Al Zarooni, winner of the world's richest race thanks to Monterosso's 2012 Dubai World Cup victory, has admitted that he was responsible for the administration of the prohibited substances.

Crisford said: "We are all shocked by what has happened. His Highness Sheikh Mohammed was absolutely appalled when he was told and this is completely unacceptable to him."

Godolphin said it would will await the outcome of the BHA inquiry before taking any further internal action.

"Sheikh Mohammed has instructed me to begin an urgent review of all of our procedures and controls," added Crisford. "That is already underway and we will take advice from the BHA in completing it."

In a statement, Al Zarooni said: "I deeply regret what has happened. I have made a catastrophic error. Because the horses involved were not racing at the time, I did not realise that what I was doing was in breach of the rules of racing. I can only apologise for the damage this will cause to Godolphin and to racing generally."

A BHA statement revealed that a total of 11 horses including Certify have been suspended from running as the result of a 'testing in training' sampling programme conducted. A total of 45 horses were tested on April 9 during a random visit that the BHA said arose from two positive tests on Al Zarooni horses in the previous 12 months.

It was only on Monday that the BHA received written advice from the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory that, upon analysis, 11 samples had present in them one of two prohibited substances, ethylestranol and stanozolol.

Desert Blossom, Certify, Fair Hill, Ghostflower, Orkney Island, Sweet Rose and Valley Of Queens tested positive for ethylestranol and Artigiano, Bathrat Amal, Opinion Poll and Restraint Of Trade tested positive for stanozolol.

Adam Brickell, director of integrity, legal and risk for the BHA, said: "Ethylestranol and stanozolol are anabolic steroids and therefore prohibited substances under British rules of racing, at any time - either in training or racing. Mahmood Al Zarooni has been advised of the analysts' findings and has been visited by an investigating officer.

"A disciplinary panel enquiry into the analysts' findings will take place at the first available opportunity, confirmed details of which will follow when available. The horses which have produced positive tests will also not be permitted to race with immediate effect and for an extended period of time. As part of the ongoing process a decision will be made as to what period this suspension will be imposed for.

"The BHA understand the importance of this process being carried out as quickly as possible because of implications for betting markets.”

Trainer Howard Johnson received a one-year ban for administering anabolic steroids to horses in training, an action that the BHA disciplinary panel concluded "seriously prejudiced the integrity and good reputation of horseracing in Great Britain".

Al Zarooni's career with Godolphin has been a significant success, bringing wins in the 1,000 Guineas, Irish Oaks, St Leger and at Royal Ascot in addition to Monterosso's World Cup triumph.

He was approached by Sheikh Mohammed having impressed as assistant to UAE champion Ali Rashid Al Raihe and subsequently to Mubarak bin Shafya, having first worked among Arab horses with Rod Simpon.

http://www.racingpost.com/news/live.sd?event_id=1054047

Overthelast

If they distribute the string , this could be a real shot in the arm to some flat trainers in Irl/Uk if they pick up the pieces.

mike65

I'd have though Godolphin would keep all the good 2 and 3 year olds anyway. The handicappers will all end up with Mark Johnston!

Overthelast

mike65 wrote: »

I'd have though Godolfin would keep all the good 2 and 3 year olds anyway. The handicappers will all end up with Mark Johnston!

Didn't they send one or two to Mick halford a season or so ago. You never know, might get to see a few blue bloods scattering the sand around Dundalk!

hawkeyethenoo

what a dirt bag.

Overthelast

He's probably the cause of Dettori's failed test too....

tryfix

He broke the golden rule, he got caught!

And he may have wrongly deprived Camelot of the Triple Crown..

artanevilla

Suprised they've only caught them now.

Seanohea

artanevilla wrote: »

Suprised they've only caught them now.

How do u mean surprised? Were they under suspicion? At least Dawn Approach stated with Bolger

madmoose

Was told about this 2 years or so ago by my mate who works for darley in newmarket but surprised its taken this long as he's prob been doing it for years.

andyman

Seanohea wrote: »

How do u mean surprised? Were they under suspicion? At least Dawn Approach stated with Bolger

...And is still with Bolger.

SRFC

No wonder Encke beat Camelot was probably drugged up to the eye balls,sad that it caused camelot the triple crown if it comes out he was,also the results in meydan lead you to believe something is going on,Monterosso winning a dubai world cup lol

sting60

tryfix wrote: »

He broke the golden rule, he got caught!

And he may have wrongly deprived Camelot of the Triple Crown..

Your first part of post is correct then you post "deprived Camelot".

RichieLawlor

Mahmoud Al Henderson? :-)

sting60

RichieLawlor wrote: »

Mahmoud Al Henderson? :-)

Why only stop with Henderson I will tell you why because the page is no where big enough to put a fraction of the names in.Where there is money there are cheats and no bigger cheats than the big flat stables where they are playing for hundreds of millions in stud fees.

tryfix

sting60 wrote: »

Your first part of post is correct then you post "deprived Camelot".

I used "may have" to qualify the statement. You can assist your horses if you work within the parameters given, and don't get caught because you know how to work within those parameters.

SRFC

Would not surprise me in the slightest if Sprinter Sacre was heavily dosed :pac:

Gringo180

SRFC wrote: »

Would not surprise me in the slightest if Sprinter Sacre was heavily dosed :pac:

I was just thinking the same thing :P

mike65

He has an inboard engine (the outlet can be glimpsed when he lifts his tail!)

Slattsy

Is there any chance Encke could lose the St Leger ?

It would mean we have a new Triple Crown winner in Camelot....

sting60

Slattsy wrote: »

Is there any chance Encke could lose the St Leger ?

It would mean we have a new Triple Crown winner in Camelot....

Was Encke found positive.The sheiks will have retraining on how not to get caught in south Tipp.

carpothepunk

He asked Henderson for his vets number last year at a breeze up with a few G+Ts in him. All makes sense now.

Gringo180

You have to feel sorry for anybody who backed Certify ante post in the 1000 guineas.

kiers47

Gringo180 wrote: »

You have to feel sorry for anybody who backed Certify ante post in the 1000 guineas.

Paddy power refunding all bets I believe.

Johner

And Coral.

carmanard

Glad to see powers refunding on Certify, I'd 20 on her at 7's last week To be honest, I've made a decent enough profit from backing Al Zarooni's horses the last two years, I was initially a bit suspect about how his string could be going so well as they were, on paper, pretty much as good as those with Bin Suroor, yet Al Zarooni had a significantly higher strikerate. And now we know why.... Mark Johnston and Bin Suroor will be the big winners out of this when, as assumed, Sheikh Mohammed re-homes the horses he had under Al Zarooni... Unless he appoints another trainer to the yard of course, there'd be no shortage of volunteers to take that string, even taking away the ones who will be banned.....

Overthelast

8 yr ban from BHA. That was quick.

Frankie Lee

Al Zarooni taking one for the team, I suppose the BHA wouldn't want to piss off Dubai too much. Still an incredible sentence in comparison to what would happen here.

shy-tall-knight

Slightly off topic but Kevin Blake's blog on the Irish Field was interesting particularly the point he made about the steroids in question here are allowed in Australia when a horse is out of competition.


"Indeed, in Australia, Al Zarooni would have actually escaped punishment altogether for his offences, as out-of-competition use of anabolic steroids is permitted as long as they don’t turn up in raceday samples. Remember that the next time you marvel at the remarkable size and strength of Australian-trained sprinters at Royal Ascot."

Not something I knew, anyone know if Peter Moody is partial to such a method?

http://www.theirishfield.ie/site/article.php?id=3046&cid=5

Frankie Lee

Also the vet who injected the horses had no idea what they were injecting them with. I would have expected such a well resourced stable yard to have a more competent vet.

Overthelast

Frankie Lee wrote: »

Also the vet who injected the horses had no idea what they were injecting them with. I would have expected such a well resourced stable yard to have a more competent vet.

That is unbelievable. Under what circumstances would a qualified vet inject an unknown substance into a racehorse? That is simply not credible. He should struck off and banned if that was his defence.

the groutch

carmanard wrote: »

And now we know why.... Mark Johnston and Bin Suroor will be the big winners out of this when, as assumed, Sheikh Mohammed re-homes the horses he had under Al Zarooni... Unless he appoints another trainer to the yard of course, there'd be no shortage of volunteers to take that string, even taking away the ones who will be banned.....

bring back Dave Loder

carmanard

the groutch wrote: »

bring back Dave Loder

Funny you say that, I was discussing that with a mate of mine today, he had no idea who David Loder was, didn't believe me that Godolphin used to park their 2 year olds with other trainers before welcoming the decent ones back into the main setup as 3 (sometimes 4) year olds. According to Wikipedia, Loder isn't even 50 years old yet, a big loss to the game when he retired IMO

UrbanSea

It would probably be better for Godolphin if this happened Bin Suroor, for such a big organization he has terrible results in the big races. Mark Johnston is even worse, does he have about 300 horses in training, when was his last gr.1 winner and these are well bred horses he's getting

Edit 221 horses in training. Multiply that by the 65.50 pounds per day per horse training fee is nearly 15 grand a day he gets in training fees

BQQ

Overthelast wrote: »

That is unbelievable. Under what circumstances would a qualified vet inject an unknown substance into a racehorse? That is simply not credible. He should struck off and banned if that was his defence.

Apparantly he's not a qualified vet.

"Some of the investigations are on-going. The vet's assistant who has been mentioned is a nebulous term in a way as he's not really a vet at all, he just simply assists but he's not captured under the rules.

http://www.sportinglife.com/racing/news/article/465/8673515/crisford-betrayed-by-al-zarooni

Overthelast

Employing an unqualified vet. Increase the ban to Life.

jimjamcos

Simon Crisford says that it was a "veterinary assistant" and that "technically he's done nothing wrong as it's not his job to know what he's administering to horses".

Whatever about drug abuse, what's come across to me from the whole episode is how poorly run Godolphins operation is.

Time for the Sheikh to bury some bodies in the desert. First up, smarmy Crisford please!

Overthelast

Honesty and hard work got lost in the noughties. But, it will come into vogue again.

3ndahalfof6

Overthelast wrote: »

Honesty and hard work got lost in the noughties. But, it will come into vogue again.

Thats what madonna thought, (not diego) ohhhhhhhh sorry that was marrra, anyway they all tried them:eek:

fizzyboy

SRFC wrote: »

Would not surprise me in the slightest if Sprinter Sacre was heavily dosed :pac:

That is out of order. I know Henderson did have some previous but there is nothing to say that SS has been doped.

Slattsy

All his winners should be void imho.

SRFC

fizzyboy wrote: »

That is out of order. I know Henderson did have some previous but there is nothing to say that SS has been doped.

He's a freak,thats suspicion enough for me,and chemical Nicky trains it,sure there was nothing to say heather royal was doped but sure enough it was :rolleyes:

klairondavis

David Walsh just tweeted that the supplementary tests are believed to have revealed further positive tests possibly including the Leger winner Enke. :eek:

jimjamcos

klairondavis wrote: »

David Walsh just tweeted that the supplementary tests are believed to have revealed further positive tests possibly including the Leger winner Enke. :eek:

Ballydoyle will be dancing to that!!

There'll be a statue of Camelot there yet! :P


RP just tweeted: "BHA confirms Encke one of seven further positive samples from former Mahmood Al Zarooni-trained horses"

Slattsy

So O'Brien didnt give Camelot a poor ride, no jockey could have beat that drugged up mule !! :eek:

jimjamcos

Slattsy wrote: »

So O'Brien didnt give Camelot a poor ride, no jockey could have beat that drugged up mule !! :eek:

ATR lads just said that Enke tested negative after Leger though so dunno where that leaves things..

Seems like he might have beaten Camelot on merit, or were the drugs just out of his system by that time?

kfallon

I'm not surprised by any of this tbh, the owner (and his son) both have previous for giving horses steroids.

BHA won't dare say Sheikh Mo is involved tho cos if he withdrew his patronage for British Racing they'd be fúcked!

Overthelast

jimjamcos wrote: »

ATR lads just said that Enke tested negative after Leger though so dunno where that leaves things..

Seems like he might have beaten Camelot on merit, or were the drugs just out of his system by that time?

This is the problem. All those horses now have a cloud hanging over them. I know I shouldn't, but when Willing Foe & Farrh won at the weekend, the first thing I thought of was if these horses were on steroids at any stage. Wrong, but thats what Zarooni & his ilk have left behind them. A stain on those famous blue silks & the industry.

kfallon

Overthelast wrote: »

This is the problem. All those horses now have a cloud hanging over them. I know I shouldn't, but when Willing Foe & Farrh won at the weekend, the first thing I thought of was if these horses were on steroids at any stage. Wrong, but thats what Zarooni & his ilk have left behind them. A stain on those famous blue silks & the industry.

My first thought when Farrh won was "You can't beat drugs!".....again it could have been wrong to do that but that's what happened. Few of my mates joked, "someone had their steroids this morning"

Everyone is gonna think like that for the next while.

And I firmly believe Al Zarooni is just the fall guy here!

andyman

The only Godolphin horse I 100% believe to be clean right now is Dawn Approach, and that's because Bolger wouldn't have any of it and the fact that DA showed his class before Godolphin bought that stake in him.

Can't believe Godolphin have possibly stopped us from witnessing history with Camelot.

rossom

We'll never ever know the true story because Sheik Mohammed's money is too important to British racing. Even if Bin Suroor's horses were on drugs we'll never know as that clearly indicates that the drug scandal was under the entire branch of Godolphin operation and effectively implicates the entire Godolphin operation as being completely complicit.

I am as sure as I can be without any actual proof that no way in hell was Al Zarooni acting out of his own free will and by himself. If this was Dubai where this occurred Al Zarooni would be hanged (literally) and given that he is a Dubai native I find it nearly impossible to believe that Al Zarooni would do this by himself without Sheik Mohammed or another prominent Godolphin representative knowing.

I am sure Mr. Al Zarooni has been suitably compensated to ensure he takes the full brunt of the blame.

With regards to Encke, he was tested after winning the St Leger and came up clean but that doesn't mean they weren't used at some stage.

As I said, we'll never know