Egan said: “In fairness to the manufacturers,their job is to sell [their products]. If steroidsare legal in some countries, it’s not up to themanufacturers to stop them being bought here.Nobody here should be buying them.”

Egan insisted there are no other casespending, but admitted the true scale ofimportation is unknown due to the ease withwhich anabolic steroids can be purchased fromjurisdictions where they are not illegal, likeAustralia.

Australian company NatureVet, owned byCeva Australia, has released all data of Irishcustomers it supplied with banned drugs tothe Department of Agriculture and Turf Clubsince 2009. The list includes not onlyracehorse trainers, but also greyhound ownersand showjumpers. The remedies theypurchased are mainly steroids and sedatives.

NatureVet says it stopped selling the potent

anabolic steroid Nitrotain, present in theHughes and Fenton cases, in June, though it isstill present on its website as a vet-onlyproduct. Fenton claimed his drugs wereobtained from a friend in Dubai.

Egan also has suggested that Horse RacingIreland could do more to assist in terms offunding. Asked if the Turf Club was receivingenough resources from HRI, he said: “We haveapplied for funding in certain areas that hasn’tbeen approved and we could do with morefunding.”

Egan is keen to upgrade equipment at theBHP Laboratory in Limerick, where samplesare examined. The Turf Club has deployed anindependent arbitrator to make a bindingdecision on the proposed funding. Theprovision for an arbitrator exists under thecurrent Irish Horseracing Industry Act of1994, but this is the first time it is being used.

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VIEW FROM IRELANDBy JESSICA LAMB

Authorities out to repair damageSteroid cases involving Philip Fenton and Pat and John Hughes dent racing’s reputation

Irish racing launches new measures tocombat anabolic steroid use this monthafter having its integrity severely damaged

by two trainers having been convicted in courtfor possession of large quantities of the bannedsubstance.

Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer PhilipFenton, whose high-class string has now beendispersed to other trainers, has beendisqualified by the Turf Club for three years,while former vet John Hughes has beenhanded a five-year ban.

Hughes’s brother Pat, the dual Irish GrandNational-winning trainer, could also face adisqualification, though he has appealed hisconviction in the district court and the TurfClub are awaiting the outcome.

The regulatory body acted in the wake of theDepartment of Agriculture’s seizure of parcelscontaining prohibited substances bound forJohn Hughes and Fenton at customs.

The Turf Club cannot seize productsanywhere, not even when making a randominspection, but, as part of an upgrade in drug-battling rules, it will this year seek to gain thatpower as well as out-of-competition testingand a confidential line for people to reportdrug possession/use anonymously.

Denis Egan, Chief Executive of the TurfClub, said: “We’re working towards having theout-of- competition testing procedures in placein January and we’re hoping to introduce aconfidential reporting line with the paymentof a reward for the provision of informationleading to conviction for use of substances thatare prohibited at all times. That is a veryimportant part of the fight against drugs.

“Do I know about the level of drug use inIreland? I don’t, but some people do and weare putting an incentive out there for them togive us the information.

“I fully understand that people don’t wantto meet us face to face, but if people haveinformation that is going to lead to convictionsthey can meet me and we will treat thatinformation with the strictest confidence. Thesources will remain confidential and they willnot be disclosed as part of the case.”

The out-of-competition testing programme,already used in jurisdictions like France, willallow the Turf Club to test any horse that hasever been returned in training, whether in orout of training, and any horse that is issued ahunter certificate at any time after January 1. In

addition, Egan is working on giving his officialsthe power to seize products found duringinspections.

He explained: “We have carried out 35 jointinspections with the Department ofAgriculture this year and we’ll be carrying outmore. It’s a very good relationship and I

couldn’t speak highly enough of the co-operation we are receiving from the specialinvestigations unit. I know that up to a yearago the relationship wasn’t there, but now it isvery, very strong.

“We have done another 100 randominspections ourselves in the last year, butduring the inspections that the Department ofAgriculture didn’t do with us we could notseize products. Now we are looking at thepossibility of introducing a rule that will giveus power in that area.”

The Department of Agriculture wasinstrumental in both the Hughes and Fentoncases, intercepting imported drugs. Theycannot find every parcel containing prohibitedsubstances though, begging the question ofwhether the onus should be on manufacturersto ensure their goods are not being sold topeople who will use them illegally.

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Irish Grand National-winning trainer Pat Hughes has appealed his court conviction

“Some people knowabout drug use. We’reputting an incentiveout there for them togive us information”

Preventing individuals in Ireland frombuying banned substances online fromcountries where the remedies are allowedwould seem the most efficient way ofslowing the tide.

In the US, online betting is banned andtherefore online gambling sites cannot beaccessed from US computers, highlightingwhat can be done.

The problem with the websites thatcontain banned substances is that theyalso contain legal substances that trainersand vets need to purchase. This makes theissue more complex, but it can be done,as an Irish technology expert explained.

“The first issue is identifying the usersfrom Ireland,” he said. “The IP addressattached to every internet session can beused, but isn’t 100% reliable as somepeople connect through corporatenetworks based abroad, or whiletravelling. But more casual users will beidentified correctly using this method.

“Let’s assume the company created twonearly identical sites, one with themodified content for Ireland. Websites, byconvention, usually use IP address port80, but this isn’t necessary and thecompany’s IT department or hostingcompany could set the modified site to usean alternative IP address port. Yourhosting company then sets a rule on thefirewall or router to ‘port forward’ to thealternative site based on where theaccessing IP address is located in theworld.

“So, if people have a conventional IPaddress and don’t notice or care that a‘port’ number appears in the URL, thenthey get sent to your alternate addresswithout further intervention.”

In short, it is possible to prevent peoplebased in Ireland from buying banneddrugs from foreign websites if they are a“casual user”.

The expert stressed, however, that theabove method would not necessarily workin all cases and added that if a companyneeds to prevent access in 100% of casesfor legal reasons, for example, “it getsdifficult, very technical, and mostprobably expensive.”

Online buying:prevention easiersaid than done

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Philip Fenton has been handed a three-year ban by the Turf Club