Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer Charles Byrnes has been handed a six-month ban after one of his horses failed a post-race drugs test.
Viking Hoard was pulled up at Tramore on October 18, 2018 – and afterwards it tested positive for a sedative. A urine sample was found to have hydroxyethylpromazinehydroxide (HEPS) in it, a metabolite of acepromazine (ACP).
A Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) hearing on Monday heard that the four-year-old gelding had been subjected to a "dangerous degree of sedation during the race." In-running comments stated that the hurdler was pushed along from the start and was tailed off when pulled up before the seventh obstacle.
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