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Greg Wood.The Guardian.
The scale of the British Horseracing Authority's failure fully to investigate the doping scandal at Moulton Paddocks in the first few months of this year is summed up in a single sentence from its report to the Godolphin operation, which paid Mahmood al-Zarooni's wages for three years until his systematic cheating was uncovered in April.
The sentence refers to seven positive samples for steroids – including one returned by Encke, last year's St Leger winner - which were found when the entire string at Moulton Paddocks was tested for performance-enhancing drugs in the days after Zarooni was ejected from racing for eight years on 25 April. "With regard to the seven further positive samples reported on 20th May 2013," the report says, "in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is sensible to assume that Mr [Al] Zarooni was responsible for them."
There are many suitable words to describe the BHA's assumption fairly but sensible is not among them. Naïve, irresponsible and convenient are all a much better fit because this latest – and, so the Authority hopes, final – account of what went on at Zarooni's stable scarcely advances our knowledge or understanding at all.
The seven subsequent positives are in many respects a more significant chapter in the Zarooni story than the 15 which appeared on his charge sheet back in April. Eleven of these horses produced positive samples for anabolic steroids when BHA investigators tested 45 horses on 9 April, while four more were offered up by Zarooni himself on a handwritten – and supposedly complete – list of the horses he had "juiced".
This allowed the BHA to depict Zarooni as a lone, rogue operator, possibly warped by the pressure to get results, who suddenly conceived a plan to cheat with performance-enhancing drugs and effectively bullied a handful of his subordinates into carrying it out. It could also position itself as tough, decisive regulator, which had caught and punished the wrong-doer in the space of days and weeks rather than months and years.
It seemed extraordinary from the outset that a Classic-winning trainer could turn rotten overnight and then devise and launch the most extensive steroid-doping operation in turf history despite spending almost the entire winter in Dubai. But if the subsequent, wholesale testing of his string had returned no further positives, this leaking wreck of a narrative might just have stayed afloat long enough for everyone to forget about Zarooni and move on.
But they did find more positives, for stanozolol, which was Zarooni's steroid of choice for colts and persists in a horse's system for up to three weeks. This in turn suggested that there would have been several more, at least, for ethylestranol, which is used on fillies and is out of the system in a week, had the wholesale tests been conducted a fortnight earlier. Zarooni's handwritten note, in other words, was baloney and the BHA's account of his activity capsized along with it.
The doping at Moulton Paddocks was clearly far more extensive than anyone bar those responsible realised three months ago. This, in turn, made it all the more implausible that Zarooni had launched the doping programme almost overnight or conducted it by proxy from 3,000 miles away.
Yet as Robin Mounsey, the BHA's spokesman, confirmed on Thursday evening, "the only time when Mahmood al-Zarooni was in the country over the entire winter period were [sic] for a few days immediately after 10th March, for the period when the events unfolded as described in the DP [disciplinary panel] findings. He then returned to Dubai after a few days until he came back after [Dubai] World Cup day [on 30 March, barely a week before the BHA testers arrived]."
"A few days", to wreak such havoc, and yet the BHA still maintains that its account of the Moulton Paddock dopings is both credible and as complete as possible, since there is "no evidence" to the contrary. As for what it has been doing for the last three months to turn up such evidence, we have little more than a list of the interviewees, and even that excludes Zarooni himself who, oddly enough, could not be tracked down. It is a shambolic situation but one which the BHA will now attempt to tiptoe away from over the coming days and weeks. As things stand, it will probably succeed.
The scale of the British Horseracing Authority's failure fully to investigate the doping scandal at Moulton Paddocks in the first few months of this year is summed up in a single sentence from its report to the Godolphin operation, which paid Mahmood al-Zarooni's wages for three years until his systematic cheating was uncovered in April.
The sentence refers to seven positive samples for steroids – including one returned by Encke, last year's St Leger winner - which were found when the entire string at Moulton Paddocks was tested for performance-enhancing drugs in the days after Zarooni was ejected from racing for eight years on 25 April. "With regard to the seven further positive samples reported on 20th May 2013," the report says, "in the absence of any evidence to the contrary, it is sensible to assume that Mr [Al] Zarooni was responsible for them."
There are many suitable words to describe the BHA's assumption fairly but sensible is not among them. Naïve, irresponsible and convenient are all a much better fit because this latest – and, so the Authority hopes, final – account of what went on at Zarooni's stable scarcely advances our knowledge or understanding at all.
The seven subsequent positives are in many respects a more significant chapter in the Zarooni story than the 15 which appeared on his charge sheet back in April. Eleven of these horses produced positive samples for anabolic steroids when BHA investigators tested 45 horses on 9 April, while four more were offered up by Zarooni himself on a handwritten – and supposedly complete – list of the horses he had "juiced".
This allowed the BHA to depict Zarooni as a lone, rogue operator, possibly warped by the pressure to get results, who suddenly conceived a plan to cheat with performance-enhancing drugs and effectively bullied a handful of his subordinates into carrying it out. It could also position itself as tough, decisive regulator, which had caught and punished the wrong-doer in the space of days and weeks rather than months and years.
It seemed extraordinary from the outset that a Classic-winning trainer could turn rotten overnight and then devise and launch the most extensive steroid-doping operation in turf history despite spending almost the entire winter in Dubai. But if the subsequent, wholesale testing of his string had returned no further positives, this leaking wreck of a narrative might just have stayed afloat long enough for everyone to forget about Zarooni and move on.
But they did find more positives, for stanozolol, which was Zarooni's steroid of choice for colts and persists in a horse's system for up to three weeks. This in turn suggested that there would have been several more, at least, for ethylestranol, which is used on fillies and is out of the system in a week, had the wholesale tests been conducted a fortnight earlier. Zarooni's handwritten note, in other words, was baloney and the BHA's account of his activity capsized along with it.
The doping at Moulton Paddocks was clearly far more extensive than anyone bar those responsible realised three months ago. This, in turn, made it all the more implausible that Zarooni had launched the doping programme almost overnight or conducted it by proxy from 3,000 miles away.
Yet as Robin Mounsey, the BHA's spokesman, confirmed on Thursday evening, "the only time when Mahmood al-Zarooni was in the country over the entire winter period were [sic] for a few days immediately after 10th March, for the period when the events unfolded as described in the DP [disciplinary panel] findings. He then returned to Dubai after a few days until he came back after [Dubai] World Cup day [on 30 March, barely a week before the BHA testers arrived]."
"A few days", to wreak such havoc, and yet the BHA still maintains that its account of the Moulton Paddock dopings is both credible and as complete as possible, since there is "no evidence" to the contrary. As for what it has been doing for the last three months to turn up such evidence, we have little more than a list of the interviewees, and even that excludes Zarooni himself who, oddly enough, could not be tracked down. It is a shambolic situation but one which the BHA will now attempt to tiptoe away from over the coming days and weeks. As things stand, it will probably succeed.
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J A McGrath.The Daily Telegraph
It seems incredible to most observers that training yards that house in excess of 400 horses and staff, with all the sophisticated equipment available, could be the scene of shoddy crimes against racing.
The British Horseracing Authority, in its report published on Thursday have concluded that Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was a lone gun.
He took it upon himself to design a programme of steroid treatment that he hoped would make his horses stronger and better, and deliver the quota of winners he needed to keep pace with his Godolphin training rival Saeed bin Suroor.
They also concluded that he deliberately deceived senior members of the Godolphin organisation including Sheikh Mohammed, his employer, and Simon Crisford, the racing manager, and that he was able to do so under such lax stable management that he was not answerable to anybody.
It may seem strange to those not versed in stable life that a person can wield a syringe without any alarm bells sounding. But that is certainly the case, and it is not to imply that horses are systematically doped at every training establishment you care to name.
When the vet arrives in the yard, he goes about his job, treating the lame and the sick, as well as the sore and unwell, and he administers the agreed dosage of vitamins or antibiotics. Nothing untoward.
When Al Zarooni gave his horses steroids, there was no logical reason for any employee in the stable to suspect he was doing anything other than following routine veterinary procedure.
When he, or an employee under instruction, was putting his syringe to use in all probability, they would not have known what was in the syringe.
The fact that the BHA detected flaws in the management of the Moulton Paddock stables has something to do with the culture of the operation.
Godolphin are renowned for employing grooms from India and Pakistan and the numbers run to three figures. These loyal horsemen spend eight months of the year in Britain before travelling back to see their families, prior to a return to Dubai in winter.
Their jobs working for Godolphin are treasured. They work for a reliable, generous employer, which enables them to regularly send money back home to their families.
They want no trouble, and the BHA chiefs might ask themselves how likely it would be that any of them would speak up, even if they suspected anything untoward.
The BHA have delivered a report that covers as many aspects of the Al Zarooni scandal as could be expected given that the trainer himself went to ground soon after being banned worldwide for eight years back in April.
Critics argued that by charging and sentencing Al Zarooni in less than a week it was a case of fast-tracking, bordering on the obscene.
But Paul Bittar, the chief executive of the BHA, made the valid point that as the man in charge he had a duty to racing and the image of the sport to extricate this rogue trainer as soon as possible.
As Al Zarooni has not delivered any defence for his actions, either in the media or in private, it is hard to establish a feasible motive for what has taken place.
For Godolphin, they must now work hard to re-establish their reputation, which has been undoubtedly tarnished.
They will certainly hope that the publication of this report draws a line under the whole affair and that they can move on.
It seems incredible to most observers that training yards that house in excess of 400 horses and staff, with all the sophisticated equipment available, could be the scene of shoddy crimes against racing.
The British Horseracing Authority, in its report published on Thursday have concluded that Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was a lone gun.
He took it upon himself to design a programme of steroid treatment that he hoped would make his horses stronger and better, and deliver the quota of winners he needed to keep pace with his Godolphin training rival Saeed bin Suroor.
They also concluded that he deliberately deceived senior members of the Godolphin organisation including Sheikh Mohammed, his employer, and Simon Crisford, the racing manager, and that he was able to do so under such lax stable management that he was not answerable to anybody.
It may seem strange to those not versed in stable life that a person can wield a syringe without any alarm bells sounding. But that is certainly the case, and it is not to imply that horses are systematically doped at every training establishment you care to name.
When the vet arrives in the yard, he goes about his job, treating the lame and the sick, as well as the sore and unwell, and he administers the agreed dosage of vitamins or antibiotics. Nothing untoward.
When Al Zarooni gave his horses steroids, there was no logical reason for any employee in the stable to suspect he was doing anything other than following routine veterinary procedure.
When he, or an employee under instruction, was putting his syringe to use in all probability, they would not have known what was in the syringe.
The fact that the BHA detected flaws in the management of the Moulton Paddock stables has something to do with the culture of the operation.
Godolphin are renowned for employing grooms from India and Pakistan and the numbers run to three figures. These loyal horsemen spend eight months of the year in Britain before travelling back to see their families, prior to a return to Dubai in winter.
Their jobs working for Godolphin are treasured. They work for a reliable, generous employer, which enables them to regularly send money back home to their families.
They want no trouble, and the BHA chiefs might ask themselves how likely it would be that any of them would speak up, even if they suspected anything untoward.
The BHA have delivered a report that covers as many aspects of the Al Zarooni scandal as could be expected given that the trainer himself went to ground soon after being banned worldwide for eight years back in April.
Critics argued that by charging and sentencing Al Zarooni in less than a week it was a case of fast-tracking, bordering on the obscene.
But Paul Bittar, the chief executive of the BHA, made the valid point that as the man in charge he had a duty to racing and the image of the sport to extricate this rogue trainer as soon as possible.
As Al Zarooni has not delivered any defence for his actions, either in the media or in private, it is hard to establish a feasible motive for what has taken place.
For Godolphin, they must now work hard to re-establish their reputation, which has been undoubtedly tarnished.
They will certainly hope that the publication of this report draws a line under the whole affair and that they can move on.
Brilliant piece by Greg Wood, debunking the lone needle-man claim.
I think we should get Oliver Stone on the case...
I think we should get Oliver Stone on the case...
The strangest thing about this whole affair is that Simon Crisford
has not been asked to consider his position.
has not been asked to consider his position.
I think we all know whats being going on but power and money will see it never comes out corruption has no boundaries and does go right to the top imo
If Al Zarooni was a "lone gun" then I'm next in line to the fcking throne. Biggest cover up since Watergate imo.
Robin Mounsey the man who stated the BHA were happy with Dave Smith's dead-heat call originally?
I have done threads on here about this case and Henderson's case,the conclusion i've come to is you can more or less do as you wish if you're loaded or have been to Oxbridge,British racing has no credibility left.
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