Banned !

[FredPuli43]

Mr al Zarooni, the trainer, has been banned from involvement in racing , worldwide, for 8 years. He had about 150 horses in the yard. A random test of 45 proved 11 tested positive for drugs, steroids. He volunteered that he had 'doped' a further 4. Godolphin, Sheikh Mohammed's outfit, says it will check all 200 horses which have been in that trainer's care. Is that ban too long, just right, or not long enough?

[DTCwordfan]

Short of a sex change, which the steroids that will be injected to him by Sheikh Mohammed, I don't think that Mr al Zarooni will be getting another job in the horse racing world.

He could look at the Tour de France teams or Lance Armstrong's trainer role though.....

[DTCwordfan]

with not which!

[ChillDoubt]

Seems about right.
His main problem will be trying to get a job in racing again once his ban expires.
When you're tarred with that sort of brush in that industry and all that it entails it can be pretty much a career death sentence.

[aelmpvw]

i don't think the length of the ban matters, his career in racing is effectively over anyway

[Wharton]

I would ban the whole 'sport'.

[Kiki-frog]

I would have thought that it would be sufficient. After all, no reputable yard is going to want to touch him with a barge pole after this. The horses are banned from racing for six months, which is a large chunk out of a racehorse's career and also Godolphin's potential earnings. Surely no one is going to want to take this guy on - he'd be too big a risk, wouldn't he?

[doctordb]

There will be a few panicky trainers double-checking the syringes at their yards.

[FredPuli43]

When they're not much use, the Sheikh has them gelded and moved on from his yards.

This must leave strong suspicions about the whole operation under this trainer. Giving a colt drugs that bulk up its muscles must improve its looks, hence its sale value, regardless of the improvement in performance against other youngsters. We are talking of a world where a 90,000 yearling can be worth 400,000 on January the 1st when it turns 3, and that's small money in Godolphin's terms. And the drugs chosen are untraceable within a few months, so that could be our winter season. . I think 8 years serves a purpose in rendering the man effectively unemployable for many years.

[Kiki-frog]

Fred, given what you've just said, do you think the problem runs deeper and al Zarooni is just the fall guy?

[FredPuli43]

I think that al Zarooni didn't act alone; that's certain because two employees, under him, were referred to in the hearing but there must be more than those in the know and acting, surely. The impression I get is that he, as the second, the junior, trainer at Godolphin, felt he was under great pressure to produce results. He could take advantage of our, and France's and America's winter; a lot of his charges are sent to Dubai in that time, though not necessarily raced then. I suspect that this random test took him completely by surprise; it's fairly rare to test animals when they are not actually racing, and this test was the result of "information". And the test was only of 45 out of 150 to 200 but showed positives in a quarter of those tested. By that reckoning, maybe 50 would have still shown positives then and possibly more would have at other times, given the disappearance rate of the drugs.

I'm sure that his employer had no idea of any of this. He's an owner of the utmost probity.

[Kiki-frog]

It does surprise me that people are willing to take the risk, though. Tests may be random, but they are also very sophisticated. The lure of money, I suppose

[FredPuli43]

True in a lot of cases, but the Sheikh doesn't need money. We aren't talking of some small trainer giving the horse Mars bars or having it on the fags (excuses for the presence of some chemicals found in the tests), to win some handicap hurdle for a syndicate at Towcester. He's the world's biggest owner of racehorses. But he likes to see his horses improving and that is what may drive a trainer to cheat to keep his job.