Every major racing jurisdiction interprets and implements the strict liability rule on the basis that if the trainer can prove that he did not administer, or cause to be administered, a prohibited substance detected, and had taken all reasonable precautions to prevent the administration of such prohibited substance, that no action or finding will be made against the trainer in their personal capacity.
In a press release published on Sunday 25 July 2021, the South African National Trainers Association says that in South Africa (SA), a third world country and by association racing jurisdiction, which is difficult to argue against what with our economic junk status, the National Horseracing Authority (NHA) continue to persecute, prosecute, and convict innocent trainers on the basis of an archaic, and believed unconstitutional and unlawful rule based on automatic guilt.
A further perfect example of the vindictive nature of the NHA and its Racing Control Executive (RCE), Arnold Hyde, has once again surfaced following a number of Zilpaterol “positives” involving 8 KwaZulu-Natal trainers with collectively 10 “positives.”
Zilpaterol is a beta-2 adrenergic agonist which is approved in certain countries as a cattle feed additive to increase size.
It is particularly prevalent in SA and as such can easily be inadvertently transferred in microgram amounts from livestock industry sources to horse feed.
Zilpaterol is usually found in molasses which feed companies use as a binding agent and to make feed more palatable.
Whilst 7 of the 8 trainers have legal representation, the unrepresented trainer, Gavin Van Zyl, decided to proceed with his Inquiry ahead of all.
Despite the fact that the NHA is well aware that this is feed contamination emanating from the same feed company – our independent tests of sample feed conducted at FDA laboratories has confirmed this – and whilst Van Zyl understandably pleaded “not guilty”, the NHA constituted Inquiry Board found him “guilty” of being the trainer responsible for 2 “positives” of Zilpaterol detected in 2 different horses.
The issuing of a penalty of a “warning” is preposterous in the extreme as no trainer of sound mind would intentionally purchase Zilpaterol contaminated feed.
The trainer concerned however, now has a conviction on his record of a Class 1 Forbidden Substance, the most serious of any drug related offence in SA horseracing and a second offence carries an opening level fine of R287k.
A videotaped educational presentation by the world-renowned Prof Thomas Tobin, sets forth that because Zilpaterol in contaminated horse feed is present in low mcg amounts that the only significant outcome is in racetrack identification.
Further, given the minimal exposure to Zilpaterol, he submits that there is no likelihood of any undue benefit to racing performance.
Overall, there have been a significant number of Zilpaterol related feed clusters of identifications dating back to April 2013 in California involving 48 racehorses.
This was followed in Hong Kong by a second cluster in July 2013 involving between 16 horses initially identified but with suggestions that at least 80 more racehorses were exposed.
The third cluster in March 2019 involved 24 horses from 7 different stables in Mauritius which cluster was directly traced to South African feedstuff.
Just prior to the Mauritian authorities implicating SA as the source of contamination, the NHA alerted horsemen in a press release to “traces of a substance which may be indicative of Zilpaterol in racehorse specimens.”
Whilst sensibly the NHA didn’t call any “positives” at that juncture, this announcement was met with an outcry by trainers who were bemused at what the NHA expected them to do apart from notifying their feed merchants.
Further, there are only two major racehorse feed companies in SA. The inadvertent transfer of Zilpaterol through molasses to horse feed was the critical factor in both the California and Hong Kong identifications. In 2020, the French also had a cluster of 18 Zilpaterol identifications.
This led additionally to sensationally a total of 11 horses trained by the legendary Aidan O’Brien, as well as his two sons, Joseph and Donnacha, being withdrawn from the Arc de Triomphe card in October 2020. 4 of Aidan’s runners were due to contest the Arc itself. This extended to the UK as well, where trainer Roger Varian, who used the same product company, scratched all 7 of his runners.
Most importantly, in all of the USA, Hong Kong, Mauritius, France, and the UK, where Zilpaterol was detected in feed, the relevant racing authorities recognized the innocence of all and as a consequence declined to take any regulatory action against the trainers concerned.
In a further unrelenting barrage foisted upon members on 24 July 2021 by the NHA and under the pen of the chairlady of the NHA, Susan Rowett, she glowingly and correctly points out that the NHA “is a full member of the International Federation of Horseracing Authorities (IFHA) and is a signatory to the International Agreement on Breeding, Racing and Wagering of the IFHA.”
She adds that “the main objectives of the IFHA include harmonization of rules and fairness of racing” and that “the agreement obligates all members to commit themselves to furthering the objectives of the IFHA.” The NHA CEO, Vee Moodley, is the SA representative at the IFHA.
What is therefore so shockingly inappropriate, downright disgraceful and smacks of extreme double standards and hypocrisy, is that following these international cluster events involving Zilpaterol, and in and during October 2020, the said IFHA, in conjunction with the European Horseracing Scientific Liaison Committee (EHSLC), where the NHA has its laboratory director, Schalk de Kock, as a representative, made a joint recommendation that NO REGULATORY ACTION SHOULD BE TAKEN against any screening findings FOR ZILPATEROL where it can be demonstrated that the horse was LIKELY FED CONTAMINATED FEED.
The question must therefore be posed as to whether this is a deliberate snub and insult from the NHA, as why else would you ignore a recommendation from an internationally acclaimed organization of which you are a full member and signatory, mere incompetence, or just a decided lack of understanding from people who are possibly out of their depth and who should now be replaced?
It is little wonder that so many of these contamination matters end up being legally challenged at great cost to all.
Consistent with these recommendations, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) and further to a statement issued by The British Equestrian Federation (BEF) dated 22 October 2020 affording a 14-day moratorium, extended a seven-day extension to the existing moratorium relating to Zilpaterol. Importantly, it was stated that these moratoriums may be extended based on updated information pertaining to contamination.
We also need to make mention of the reference by Rowett in the same paragraph of her mail, to the NHA stance that “jockey/trainer representation on the Board would be an unacceptable conflict of interest.”
This is disingenuous, as we have made it very clear both in the requisition document and publicly, that it would be a representative/person appointed by the trainers and jockeys’ associations and not a current jockey or a trainer.
Rowett of course, patently ignores the fact that presently the NHA has 3 Breeders on the Board being herself, Dr Ashley Parker, and Prof Ian Sanne.
This is deemed to be acceptable, but the trainers and the jockeys having but 1 representative each in the form of probably a legal or financial person, is not.
We in fact have as a condition to the proposed Resolutions, that there must be an independent person as chair and representation of an entire industry in line with the accepted proposal made to the Parliamentary Portfolio Committee by the Department of Trade and Industry that racing must be self-regulatory as in all other sports.
We do not subscribe to a Board hand-picked by the “House of Lords” in a Nominations Committee consisting of 4 white ex-chairmen of the National Board, who presently have the sole right and authority to appoint Directors. We submit that our proposals which will additionally save the industry in excess of R10 million annually, offers far greater independence and integrity than present.
After, SA’s largest Racing Operator, Phumelela, went into business rescue, the industry was only saved through the philanthropy of the Mary Oppenheimer Daughters (MOD).
This financial assistance will not however be extended indefinitely, yet the NHA whose funding is in no small part a direct result of such benevolence merely carry on regardless as if their conduct is flawless.
Whilst only 100 signatories were required in order to compel the NHA to call a SGM, 336 signatories were submitted and another 70 after the cut-off date.
The NHA appear impervious to this, and nowhere do they even condone, nor accept any of the proposals, nor the magnitude of the importance of the signatories which include MOD and most of the biggest names and contributors to the racing industry.
The RCE, Arnold Hyde, has alienated virtually every trainer and jockey and most of his stipendiary team and we know for a fact that there are a number of Directors on the National Board who would also like to see the back of him, yet the NHA in press releases continue to unbelievably back him and his position.
Many therefore understandably believe that the constant messaging by the NHA to its members, to be out of touch with reality, self-congratulatory adulation bereft of credence, condescending, arrogant and an insult to their intelligence
It is no figment of any imagination that the rest of the world treats SA with such trepidation and circumspection with an NHA seemingly impervious and immune to justice, fairness, and downright common sense, and which organization appears hell-bent on continually shooting itself in the foot and the rest of a decimated and bleeding industry in the head.
Unless there is meaningful change very soon, the SA horseracing industry appears to be on a path to self-destruction.
- Media release by SANTA on Sunday 25 July 2021
