Frst Trainers Automatically Suspended Under New Anti-Doping Rule

Horse-canada.com - Full Article

February 12, 2019
by: Pippa Cuckson

Two UAE endurance trainers are the first to be automatically suspended for horses in their care testing positive to banned substances.

The new rule came into effect on January 1st, as the FEI beefs up its battle with ongoing doping issues. Endurance still returns a substantially higher percentage of positives from horses sampled than any other equestrian sport; 37 of the 57 cases currently waiting a Tribunal decision are in endurance, mostly from riders in the Group 7 (Middle East) region.

Trainers Ibrahim Joynal Abedin (Si Quilombo) and Rashed Suhail Al Darbi (Kekmadar) have been provisionally suspended, pending a final Tribunal decision, after both horses tested positive to arsenic. Both horses had the same rider, Said Al Balushi, who is also provisionally suspended. Saudi rider Ahmad Althmaly is also listed as the suspended trainer of Sarem who has tested positive to steroids Stanozolol and 16-betahydroxystanozolol.

This is the first time a new FEI anti-doping rule has been discipline-specific. In all other equestrian sports, because the rider is usually the horse’s trainer and stable manager he is regarded as the prime “person responsible” (PR) and thereby liable for doping offences. However, endurance in the Middle East mostly revolves around large barns of many hundreds of horses and prepared by professional trainers but competed by staff riders or overseas visitors with little prior contact...

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https://horse-canada.com/horse-news/first-trainers-suspended-new-anti-doping-rule/