Great Britain: Nothing sinister in drugs seizure claims trainer

Racingpost.com - Full Article

By Tony Smurthwaite 7:25PM 11 SEP 2013

THE endurance trainer at the centre of latest furore to hit Sheikh Mohammed's Newmarket headquarters has insisted that there was nothing sinister about the consignment of 124 unauthorised equine medicines seized by government officials last month.

On the contrary, Jaume Punti Dachs, who trains endurance horses on part of Sheikh Mohammed's Dalham Hall estate at Moorley Farm East in Newmarket, said that Defra's Veterinary Medicines Directorate was concerned only that he had bought them overseas and imported them rather than buying them in the UK.

Punti Dachs and his wife Maria Mercedes Alvarez Ponton compete regularly in endurance sport and claim to expect such official visits. In addition to releasing a statement in which he denied any suggestion of wrongdoing, the trainer listed the names and quantities of medication he had brought in from overseas alongside the equivalent product, some under different trade names, he had ordered later that day and which were delivered to him the following day from the Newmarket Equine Hospital.

His statement read: "My stables in Newmarket was visited by the Defra Authorities in early August, where they searched the premises and found normal medications that I brought to the UK and they confiscated them because they were not licensed in this country...

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