Top trainer’s horse tests positive for cocaine

The leading Newmarket trainer Ed Dunlop has revealed plans to introduce drug testing for his staff, having been handed a 12-month ban — suspended for a year — after one of his runners tested positive for cocaine at Brighton last year.
Cocaine has long been an issue in the racing industry, with high-profile names such as Kieren Fallon, Frankie Dettori and Oisin Murphy among a number of jockeys who have received bans for failed drugs tests.
Dunlop, 55, has saddled the Oaks winners Ouija Board and Snow Fairy during a 30-year career. The only previous positive test for one of his runners came in France in 2012, when Snow Fairy was disqualified from the group one Prix Jean Romanet. Dunlop blamed that on being given incorrect advice about the withdrawal period for an anti-inflammatory drug.
The source of the cocaine in the sample provided by Lucidity, who finished second in a field of five in the race in July 2023, remains unknown.
The British Horseracing Authority (BHA) made clear that it attaches no blame to Dunlop, who nonetheless received a £1,000 fine. He will only lose his licence to train if another of his runners tests positive in the next 12 months.
During the hearing at the BHA’s High Holborn headquarters, one of Dunlop’s staff admitted to using cocaine on two occasions but one was well before ­Lucidity’s Brighton race and the other was afterwards. The four-year-old filly, who has yet to win a race, has been disqualified from her Brighton second.
Rory Mac Neice, Dunlop’s solicitor, described the verdict as “clearly and obviously, utterly undeserved”.
“The rules have got to enable appropriate and fair disposal of cases and it seems to me these rules don’t,” Mac Neice told the Racing Post. “What this means is that somebody who has been a rule-taker for 30 years, who has an impeccable record, who clearly adds to the industry, far from being a threat to it, has a sword of Damocles hanging over his head for 12 months. What does that achieve?”
Cross-contamination from humans to thoroughbreds is not without precedent, with two horses testing positive for cocaine in Australia last August.