TORNADO Flyer has been confirmed as the winner of the Grade 1 bumper at the Punchestown Festival, despite testing positive for a prohibited substance.

The Willie Mullins-trained gelding tested positive for cetirizine, an antihistamine commonly used in humans and increasingly used for therapeutic purposes in the horse.

Hearing the case this week, the Referrals Committee was told that the sample contained between four and six parts per million of the substance. Dr Lynn Hillyer of the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board told the hearing that the European Horserace Scientific Liaison Committee recently recommended that a screening limit of 100 parts per million be introduced for cetirizine.

Noting that the screening limit “was in the process of being introduced” the Committee of Justice Raymond Groarke, Robert Dore and Philip Caffrey used their discretion to allow Tornado Flyer keep the race.

Mullins told the Committee that the horse had not been administered cetirizine and his medicine register confirmed this.

He admitted to the rule breach and the Committee noted his “full cooperation during the investigation”. They decided to impose no sanction on the trainer.