Wesley Ward Drug$

WESLEY WARD'S historic sortie from the US to Royal Ascot was almost grounded after his licence was suspended for the latest in a collection of medication violations that would provoke astonishment in Britain but is regarded much less seriously in the US.

The day after Cannonball was narrowly beaten in the Group 1 Golden Jubilee Stakes on the final day of the Royal meeting, the American trainer began a 15-day suspension for breaching a threshold limit for clenbuterol, a bronchodilator used to improve breathing.

All of Ward's Royal Ascot runners were drug tested and the results were negative, but the appearance of US-trained horses in Britain raises questions about the BHA's regulatory response to the long-term use of clenbuterol in other jurisdictions, while the catalogue of drug infringements racked up by Ward, and the penalties imposed for them, provide striking evidence of the contrasting attitudes to equine medication in the US and UK.

Ward made history when Strike The Tiger won the Windsor Castle Stakes and Jealous Again, subsequently bought by Sheikh Mohammed, won the Queen Mary Stakes, but a positive test returned after Notonthesamepage's victory in the $100,000 Spectacular Bid Stakes at Gulfstream Park in January almost scuppered Ward's Ascot plans.

Connections requested a second test, which confirmed the presence of clenbuterol above the permitted threshold. In Britain, clenbuterol is a prohibited substance and Notonthesamepage would have been automatically disqualified.

The Gulfstream Park stewards did not disqualify Notonthesamepage nor redistribute the purse, but fined Ward $1,000 and, against a background of multiple previous infringements, suspended him for 15 days. It was decided that the suspension would not start until after Royal Ascot.

In the US, clenbuterol is categorised as a class 3 substance, one less likely to affect a horse's performance than class 1 or 2 drugs but in the same category as anabolic steroids"

Widely used in training - it has been suggested that 95 per cent of racehorses in California are trained on it - clenbuterol's presence on raceday in the US, above a threshold limit, is an offence.

Dr Tim Morris, the BHA's director of equine science and welfare, said: "We don't know how widely used clenbuterol is in Britain but our testing programme suggests that it is not a big feature of training here.

"Clenbuterol dilates the airways and is likely to give a horse an advantage on raceday, so we wouldn't want it present then. If it is used on a long-term basis it can also have an anabolic effect, indirectly building muscle, a positive test result would trigger automatic disqualification of the horse and a penalty for the trainer."

The penalty depends on the circumstances of the drug's administration but Morris indicated that, if it was one of a series of offences or there was evidence of long-term administration with a view to improving a horse's performance, a major penalty could be expected.

This raises the question of whether or not horses trained abroad, legally and routinely given clenbuterol, should be allowed to race in Britain, given that the long-term anabolic effect of the drug may give such horses an advantage.


Lets not insult Frankel by comparing him with illegal 2yo freaks please.