THE Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board has defended its drug testing procedures in the wake of comments made by trainer Jim Bolger in The Irish Field last weekend.

The trainer said he was “concerned with the lack of policing in racing” and, in relation to unlawful medications, he claimed “certain things are forbidden and they are being used and it needs to be dealt with.”

Bolger’s comments were picked up by the Racing Post, The Irish Times and Racing TV. The trainer told the Racing Post: “The IHRB gets a huge budget from Horse Racing Ireland and it needs to start spending it properly. It is not up to scratch at the moment anyway, that’s for sure.”

He added: “There is science and technology in hair testing which can detect steroids in samples from hair going back years. It might be expensive, but you just need to carry out these tests on a couple of dozen and it would act as a deterrent.”

This week the IHRB told The Irish Field that it has tested approximately 80 hair samples taken from raceday winners since this year’s Galway Summer Festival. A spokesperson said: “We are the first racing jurisdiction to implement these tests on racedays and the horses selected represented a wide range of trainers, big and small, flat and National Hunt.” None of the tests returned positive for illegal substances.

The IHRB says it is carrying out more equine anti-doping testing than ever before, and this includes an increased emphasis on out of competition testing.

In 2018 the IHRB moved its drug testing to LGC Laboratories in Newmarket, the same company which handles the process for British racing. Although a similar amount of drug tests were carried out that year the number of positives rose from five (in 2018) to 27.

In 2019, 4,399 samples (urine, blood and hair) were taken, including 778 taken out of competition. As a result of these samples 13 post-races positives were returned, some of which involved substances prohibited at all times.

This summer, the IHRB reached an agreement with the Department of Agriculture under which IHRB officials can be trained to become authorised officers. This gives the officials additional search and seize powers when carrying out inspections. Among these extra powers will be the ability to inspect ‘out of competition’ horses at stud farms and pre-training yards.

Covid-19 complications have delayed the implementation of that service level agreement but progress may be made on Monday.

Shane O’Dwyer, CEO of the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders’ Association, said yesterday: “There is a Zoom meeting scheduled for Monday between the ITBA and IHRB to draw up the protocols for stud farm inspections. Breeders want a 24-hour notice of inspection because in many cases they will not be at home during normal working hours. No substance will remove itself within 24 hours anyway.”