ON Saturday, the frustratingly drawn-out proceedings against Philip Fenton and John Hughes appeared to draw to a close in the Turf Club with Fenton being warned off for three years and Hughes for five years.

It could readily be argued that both punishments were lenient, though Fenton has appealed the severity of his ban.

These cases resulted in the reputation of Irish racing being dragged through the mud and scrutinised in a way that no lover of the sport was comfortable with. In Fenton’s case, it cast a cloud over the build-up to the Cheltenham Festival.

That Fenton is a universally well-liked character in racing should only be of limited relevance. He willingly broke one of the most sacred rules of racing and the punishment he received was, in my opinion, at the lower scale of what might have been expected.

While Fenton’s case was the one that the mainstream press seized upon, for me it was the case of John Hughes that raises more concerns for Irish racing. What was a retired vet and widely-known character on Irish racecourses doing with what the Turf Club described as “commercial quantities” of Nitrotain, a highly-potent and difficult-to-detect anabolic steroid product?

Hughes’ failure to cooperate with the inquiry has denied us the opportunity to hear his explanations for his actions and legal restrictions limit the potential for public speculation. However, sources suggest that information obtained by the Turf Club during their investigation, and from a list of addresses supplied to them from an Australian-based supplier of Nitrotain, led to multiple raids of equestrian properties.

While these raids did not result in any discoveries of illegal substances, one can be sure that these individuals know that they are being watched very closely indeed by the Turf Club.

Ultimately, as was the case with the Mahmood Al Zarooni steroid scandal in Britain, the silver lining to this particular cloud is that it has resulted in more progress being made in testing and integrity procedures in a year than in the previous decade.

One of the most important changes that will be made from January 1st is that, as soon as a horse has been returned in training for the first time, they are liable to be tested at any time on any property whether it is licensed or not, which closes a gaping loophole in the existing system that makes horses which are housed on unlicensed premises somewhat untouchable.

There is also an aim to introduce measures on January 1st, 2016, that will allow for any horse to be tested at any time on any property from birth onwards, which hopes to end the possibility of foals and yearlings being given illegal substances.

The development of hair testing, which reportedly can detect if steroids have been administered to a horse at any time of its life without being able to identify at what time the steroids were administered, is also a positive development. Though, with many horses routinely passing through three or four different yards before they even run on the racecourse, one suspects that the amount of testing that would need to be done to clearly identify the cheaters will make widespread hair testing unworkable and cost-prohibitive.

Perhaps the most effective deterrent of all will be the planned setting up of a confidential information line that whistle-blowers can use to alert the authorities to the use of illegal substances with the promise of five-figure rewards for tip-offs that result in successful convictions.

The sad reality of any high-stakes sport is that there will always be individuals who will look to get an edge by cheating. It is even sadder that it has taken such high-profile recent cases to jolt the authorities into action.

However, positive changes are being made and one can only hope that the Turf Club will continue to doggedly pursue those who seek to cheat. For an industry that relies so much on equine exports, Irish racing cannot afford to have its reputation dragged through the mud again.