The British Horseracing Authority has announced details of its tougher policy on anabolic steroids, including a 14-month ban for any horses found to have been administered the drugs.
High-profile cases involving Mahmood Al Zarooni and Gerard Butler hit the headlines last year, and the BHA has strengthened its stance with a zero tolerance approach on steroids.
New minimum standards were published by International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) in October 2013 but following research and consultation, the BHA has outlined its official policy.
Under the rules a horse must not be given an anabolic steroid at any point in its life, and any that are, will be banned from training for 12 months and ineligible to start in any race in Britain for 14 months.
All British-bred horses must be registered with Weatherbys within 12 months of birth, a period which will be phased to six months in two years, and they must be available for testing at any time after registration.
Permanently imported horses must be registered with Weatherbys within three months of arrival in Britain and be accompanied by a sample that shows no evidence of anabolic steroid usage.
Horses from Ireland, France and Germany which have spent 12 months under their similar policies will be exempt while runners from those countries will be treated as British horses and sampled as per the standard testing policy.
The BHA ruled all other foreign runners must be in Britain a minimum of 14 days in advance of their intended race for post-arrival sampling and analysis, the results of which will be received prior to the horse running.
“The need for an international position that sets robust minimum standards on use of anabolic steroids in horseracing was one that was pushed by BHA and a number of other key racing jurisdictions last year and resulted in the IFHA adopted position,” Paul Bittar, chief executive of BHA, said.
“The enhanced, zero-tolerance policy announced today, which exceeds the international minimum standard, has the objective of ensuring that British racing remains at the forefront of tackling an issue that ranks amongst the biggest threats faced by any world sport.
“It is also hoped that this will be another step towards global harmonisation across the sport.”
The intention is for the policy to be implemented by January 1, 2015, pending the implementation of the necessary rule changes.
