A British trainer has been suspended for seven days in the US and had to forfeit £21,000 in prize-money after one of his horses tested positive for a banned substance. Pandora’s Gift became a rare runner over the pond for Newmarket trainer Stuart Williams when she contested two Grade 2 races at Presque Isle Downs and Keeneland, finishing second and third respectively this autumn.
She was entered to run in the Breeders’ Cup Filly & Mare Sprint but was sold at auction days before the championships for £660,000 and was scratched by her new owners. Now some of the gloss has been taken off Williams’s overseas foray after it emerged that a post-race drug test of the three-year-old had revealed traces of the controlled medication gabapentin, which can be used to treat epilepsy and nerve pain.
The Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit in the US announced that the filly would be disqualified, Williams suspended from seven days from December 18 and also fined £1,500. Williams, speaking to Mirror Racing, said the ban applied in the US and he could continue to have runners in Britain during the seven day period.
“I am banned over there,” he said. “They haven’t asked the BHA to reciprocate the ban.”. The HIWU said there was an admission of the rule violation and acceptance of the consequences. “It’s obviously a contamination,” Williams said. “Gabapentin is not something that is used in horses. The rule is the same here, it’s a strict liability offence and we have no option to fight it.
