WITH the recent greyhound doping scandal focusing public attention on animal welfare, Horse Sport Ireland’s established National Equine Anti-Doping Programme could see tests for prohibited substances carried out at competition events throughout the season.

The issue of greyhound doping came to light when the Irish Greyhound Board (Bord na gCon) reported that champion greyhound Clonbrien Hero, trained by UK native Graham Holland, based in Tipperary, repeatedly tested positive for a cocaine metabolite.

Holland denied any wrongdoing or knowledge of the positive findings.

Clonbrien Hero, who won the prestigious Irish Laurels, was found to have traces of the Class A drug on three separate occasions this year. The €30,000 prize money from the race, which is one of the highlights of the greyhound calendar, was frozen after the positive tests emerged.

Meanwhile, as the Budget looms on October 11th next, Bord na gCon received a hefty €16m in public funding in 2017 - almost four times the total annual funding currently received by Horse Sport Ireland to spearhead the €700m sport horse industry (see Editorial).

Horse Sport Ireland administers the National Equine Anti-Doping Programme (NEADP), established in 2012, for all of its affiliated bodies from show jumpers and eventers right down to children’s ponies.

A HSI spokesperson said: “We have been running the programme since 2012. Our Anti-Doping program seeks to preserve what is intrinsically valuable about sport. This intrinsic value is often referred to as “the spirit of sport”.

The programme is governed under our Equine Anti-Doping and Equine Controlled Medication Rules (EAD/ECM), which are similar to that of the FEI Rules. The testing programme is applicable to all affiliate members.

Horse Sport Ireland tests for prohibited substances at events throughout the season. This testing is completed in-competition. We do not test out of competition similar to the FEI.”

All relevant information with regard to the FEI Equine Prohibited Substance List is available on the Horse Sport Ireland website, the FEI website and the FEI Clean Sport App.

When it comes to buying prescription drugs over the internet for use in animals, the Department of Agriculture, Food and the Marine has extensive search and prosecution powers oulined in legislation which requires people to hold a valid veterinary prescription for such products.