TRAINER Charles Byrnes has been banned for six months after one of his runners was deliberately doped to STOP it winning.
Viking Hoard tested positive for a sedative after his run at Tramore in October 2018 – and Irish racing chiefs concluded he was drugged on purpose shortly before the race.
The horse was tested on account of his poor peformance, which saw him eventually pull up having come under pressure after the first hurdle.
He was found to have a slow heart rate after the race, and the sedative ACP was later detected in his urine sample.
At a hearing with the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) on Monday, it was established that the horse had been subjected to a “dangerous degree of sedation during the race”.
And HRB chief vet Dr Lynn Hillyer said Viking Hoard had been “nobbled” by an unidentified third party – meaning someone had deliberately doped the horse in the hours leading up to the race.
Racing bosses were also alerted by the BHA to suspicious betting patterns, with the horse drifting out to 8-1 from 4-1 before the off.
Further investigation found that a huge ‘lay’ bet – betting on a horse to lose – had been placed on Viking Hoard on the Betfair Exchange.
The unnamed layer bet €34,889, half of the entire market on the race, that the horse would lose, returning €3,200.
There had been two other instances of suspicious betting patterns around the horse, once when €30,279 was bet on him to lose at Sedgefield in October 2018 and once when €55,000 was bet at Galway in July 2018.
Further investigation found that the huge bets had been placed by a Limited Company with ties to a match fixer – who was not named.
Byrnes denied having any knowledge of the administration of ACP to Viking Hoard, but admitted he and his son Cathal had left the horse unattended in the racecourse stables.
The hearing concluded that: “Viking Hoard was ‘nobbled’ by an unidentified third party at a time when the gelding was left unaccompanied by him or his son.
“Although not alleged to be involved directly in the administration of ACP, (Brynes’) neglect in supervising the gelding facilitated what was clearly organised pre-race doping of his charge.
“The deliberate doping of Viking Hoard close to race time in this case could not conceivably have been a casual or opportunistic event.”
Last January, Byrnes, who enjoyed Grade 1 success at the Cheltenham Festival with the likes of Solwhit and Weapon’s Amnesty, was fined €2,000 by Naas stewards under ‘non-trier’ rules.
He also famously landed a huge gamble at Roscommon on August 2, 2016.
His three winners returned 6-1, 5-4 and 7-4 – but a treble at early prices paid 4,334-1. The gamble was believed to have cost bookmakers a seven-figure sum.
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