OFFICIALS from the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board carried out their first inspections of non-licensed thoroughbred premises this week, having been granted the authority to do so by the Department of Agriculture.

It marks a significant step forward in the IHRB’s anti-doping efforts and essentially means that the IHRB can gain access to all thoroughbreds at all times. It is claimed that the IHRB is the first racing authority in the world to be given such powers.

It comes almost 10 years after Department officers discovered significant quantities of anabolic steroids in the possession of former veterinary inspector John Hughes and trainer Philip Fenton.

Since those 2012 cases, the racing authorities have launched several anti-doping initiatives but gaining the ability to search stud farms and pre-training yards has proved a long road. In February, following the conclusion of the Charles Byrnes doping case, the IHRB said it expected to have authorisation to search unlicensed premises by mid-summer. That ‘authorised officer’ status was confirmed for 12 IHRB staff last week and the first inspections of unlicensed premises took place this week.

Asked this week if Irish racing could safely be described as clean, an IHRB spokesperson said: “With only two isolated and well-understood cases involving the administration of prohibited at all times substances in the last five years - from the thousands of samples analysed at one of the best racing labs in the world - we do not have to speculate.

“We know that we have no evidence of any systematic misuse of drugs. By building on work in this area, we will be better able than ever to demonstrate this.

“In 2021 we intend to take around 5,000 samples. Now that we have authorised officer status and are able to access any thoroughbred at any time, our team on the ground are ahead of schedule. If there are areas of concern we will identify and deal with them.”

In 2018 Irish racing saw a huge spike in positive post-race drug tests, an anomaly which has been linked to a change in the testing laboratory at that time. Currently all samples are tested by LGC in Fordham, Cambridgeshire.

Asked if every positive test result returned by LGC leads to a hearing, the IHRB spokesperson said: “If the presence of a prohibited substance is confirmed by LGC, the case will always be brought before a Referrals Committee hearing following a full investigation.”