THE British Horseracing Authority’s new anti-doping rules take effect from Monday but there should be no significant impact on Irish horses travelling to Cheltenham.

The enhanced zero-tolerance policy, first announced in June 2014, includes new rules which state that a horse must never be administered with an anabolic steroid at any time from birth to retirement. The rules give greater powers for the BHA in terms of access for testing registered horses.

Although horses coming to race in Britain from abroad are required to be in the UK “a minimum of 10 business days in advance of their intended race to facilitate post-arrival sampling and analysis”, horses from Ireland, France and Germany are exempt from this requirement.

Maguire to miss Cheltenham

Jockey Jason Maguire will miss the Cheltenham Festival for the second year running after his appeal against a 14-day ban was dismissed. The rider was suspended under the “non-triers” rule at Ludlow on February 18th. Maguire missed the 2014 Cheltenham meeting after being seriously injured in a fall on the eve of the fixture. The 34-year-old’s ban runs from March 4th-17th.

King dies in SA

Classic winner King Of Kings has died at stud in South Africa, aged 20. The son of Sadler’s Wells was Aidan O’Brien’s first British classic winner when he won the 2000 Guineas in 1998.

ITM appointment

Eimear Chance has joined Irish Thoroughbred Marketing as an executive this week. Daughter of Gold Cup-winning trainer Noel Chance, she joins the team from Great British Racing International where she was marketing and operations executive.

Ladbrokes losses

Ladbrokes is reviewing its Irish business after it made a loss here during 2014. The bookmaker has 196 shops in Ireland but its operating profit in Ireland (including Northern Ireland) was only £4.4 million in 2014. The operation in the Republic was loss-making, it said, and “did not deliver on its plan”.