Sheik Mohammed Gets 6-Month Ban for Horse Doping

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Equestrian federation bans its president's husband, Dubai ruler Sheik Mohammed, for 6 months
By GRAHAM DUNBAR AP Sports Writer
GENEVA August 3, 2009 (AP)

The International Equestrian Federation banned its president's husband — Dubai's Sheik Mohammed — from riding in endurance races for six months after his horse twice failed doping tests.

Sheik Mohammed accepted the suspension based on his horse Tahhan's positive tests for a hypertension drug and the steroid stanozolol, equestrian's governing body said Monday.

"Consistent with the FEI's strict liability approach to anti-doping rule violations, the panel has found Sheik Mohammed responsible for the doping of his horse," a tribunal panel said in a ruling published on the FEI's Web site.

His ban runs through Oct. 3, and he was assessed $4,200 in fines and legal costs.

The sheik's horse trainer, Abdullah bin Huzaim, admitted giving the horse drugs without the sheik's knowledge before the 74.5-mile desert races at Bahrain and Dubai.

Bin Huzaim was banned for a year and fined.

Sheik Mohammed's wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, is president of the FEI and has campaigned to clean up equestrian's doping and medication problems. She took no part in the disciplinary process.

The three-man panel said bin Huzaim, manager of the sheik's Emaar Stables in Dubai, "clearly wanted His Highness to do well with the horse. This behavior is not acceptable and needs to be sanctioned severely."

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