British racing’s ruling body insists it has total faith in Ireland’s anti-doping system although British Horseracing Authority personnel carried out their own testing at two major Irish stables the week before Cheltenham. News that British officials tested Irish trained horses comes in the context of 2017’s record haul of 19 festival winners for Ireland. Top flat trainer Ger Lyons tweeted: “Implies that Irish horses are cheating & that our authorities are turning a blind eye to it! This is about our festivals, about out of competition testing towards those festivals, and testing a spread of competitors at those festivals. We’ve got to look at British racing and make sure it’s as competitive as possible.

Source: The Irish Times March 18, 2018 16:30 UTC