Star trainer Willie Mullins has received a fine and one of his horses has been disqualified from a Cheltenham race after a banned substance was found in its system. Final Demand, which finished second in the Brown Advisory Novices’ Chase at Cheltenham in March, has been stripped of its result.
An independent British Horseracing Authority (BHA) disciplinary panel ruled that Final Demand had mepivacaine, a local anaesthetic, in its system. The panel stated that Mullins breached Rule (J)24.2 by failing to declare the use of mepivacaine on the horse in its medical declaration forms submitted before the race.
Mullins has been fined £1,100. Judicial panel chair Sarah Crowther KC noted that the BHA and Mullins agreed to the proposed sanctions, which she deemed appropriate. Crowther added that culpability was low, with no suggestion that Mullins or his staff knew of the administration of mepivacaine, and the BHA accepted that reasonable precautions were in place.
Additionally, Cheltenham Racecourse was fined £5,000 for a rule breach related to misplaced CCTV footage from a yard where the horse was kept. Racecourses are required to retain such footage.