Gordon Elliott will face a BHA listening to after Cheltenham Competition third Zanahiyr failed a post-race medication check.
The thoroughbred was positioned behind Honeysuckle in final 12 months’s operating of the Champion Hurdle. However within the aftermath of the characteristic race on day one of many assembly, five-time winner Zanahiyr examined constructive for a banned substance.
A press release from the British Horseracing Authority lists it as 3-hydroxylidocaine – a metabolite of lidocaine which is a generally used native anaesthetic agent in horses. Zanahiyr, who runs within the colors of Bective Stud, received connections £47,745 within the March 15 contest, which took his total earnings to greater than £200,000.
Nevertheless he might be stripped of the winnings if the British Horseracing Authority’s disciplinary panel discover Elliott has breached its Rule (Okay)2.2.
Penalties for such an offence vary from fines to disqualification, relying on the extent of culpability.
Fourth-placed horse Saint Roi, owned by JP McManus just like the runner-up Epatante, would transfer as much as third – and prize cash goes proper right down to eighth.
The BHA assertion learn: “The unbiased Disciplinary Panel of the British Horseracing Authority will convene on Wednesday 8 February 2023 to listen to the next referral.
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“1. Whether or not or not Licensed Coach and Accountable Particular person Mr Gordon Elliott is in breach of Rule (Okay)2.2 (Presence of a Class B Prohibited Substance)1 of the post-4 January 2022 Guidelines of Racing because of the presence of a Prohibited Substance (3-hydroxylidocaine) in a post-race urine pattern taken from Zanahiyr on fifteenth March 2022 following the 15:30 Unibet Handicap Hurdle Problem Trophy over 2 miles and ½ furlong at Cheltenham racecourse.
“2. Zanahiyr must be disqualified from the related race beneath Rule (L)47.4 (Disqualification of horses in races already run)2 as a result of its post-race urine pattern examined constructive for a Prohibited Substance.”
The findings of the check come after Elliott’s coach’s licence was reinstated in September 2021. One of the crucial profitable trainers on the Cheltenham Festival, Elliott was given a 12 months ban after a photograph of him sitting on a useless horse was circulated.
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Six months of the penalty was suspended by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board from March 2021. Elliott is at present positioned second within the Irish Trainers’ Championship behind Willie Mullins.
Zanahiyr final raced on February 5 on the Dublin Racing Competition, the place he completed final of the 5 runners within the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle.
Victory went to the Mullins-trained State Man, rated the most important hazard to sizzling favorite Structure Hill within the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham this 12 months.
Elliott can be awaiting the return of his primary jockey Jack Kennedy, who fractured his decrease leg in two locations throughout a fall final month.
The setback prompted his weighing room colleague Davy Russell, who had solely simply introduced his retirement, to make a shock return to the saddle.
