• Horse Racing

Al Zarooni charged ahead of Thursday hearing

Mahmood Al Zarooni has been charged after tests found traces of anabolic steroids in 11 of his horses.

Al Zarooni will go before a British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel on Thursday afternoon and faces the prospect of losing his training licence.

He has been officially charged with rule breaches related to prohibited substances, duty to keep medication records, and conduct prejudicial to racing.

Tests were carried out on 45 horses at Al Zarooni's Moulton Paddocks Stables and 11 of those were found to contain contained ethylestranol and stanozolol, both prohibited substances.

Al Zarooni confirmed to the BHA that he had also given the substances to four other horses so will in effect face 15 charges rather than 11.

The BHA said: "Information provided by Mahmood Al Zarooni to the investigating officers has revealed that, in addition to the 11 horses which tested positive and were named on 22nd April, a further four horses were administered one of the two prohibited substances. Those horses are: Comitas, Sashiko, Vacationer (all Ethylestranol) and Tearless (Stanozolol).

"These horses were under the care of Mr Al Zarooni but had not been subjected to testing. As these additional horses were not tested and no positive samples exist, no charges are brought under (C)50 and/or (C)55 in relation to them and as such the trainer remains facing the original 11 counts of this charge at this stage. However, it is appropriate to charge the trainer with breaches of the Rules related to medication records and conduct prejudicial to horseracing related to these horses, and therefore the trainer now faces 15 counts of these charges."

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