Racing Post

I’ve seen no sign of a Lance Armstrong – but the thought of it makes me feel unwell

DAVID JENNINGS

HERE is an extract from The Secret Race, a chilling insight into the crude world of pro cycling by Tyler Hamilton and Daniel Coyle: “It took the drug-testing authorities several years and millions of dollars to develop a test to detect EPO in urine and blood. It took [doctor Michele] Ferrari about five minutes to figure out how to evade it.”

Hamilton was a teammate of Lance Armstrong during the Tour de France in 1999, 2000 and 2001, when he was a massive asset to Armstrong because of his climbing ability. There are parts of the book which will leave you feeling numb, with Hamilton ruthlessly ripping the sport to its rotten core.

You can probably guess why I have brought up cycling and, in particular, Lance Armstrong. Of course you can. This week we should have been drooling over Poetic Flare, discussing how everything rhymed so eloquently for him in the St James’s Palace Stakes on Tuesday, but instead we are talking about his trainer.

Potentially the best horse Jim Bolger has ever trained is in danger of being overshadowed by the biggest claim he has ever made.

“Well, there will be a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing,” Bolger told Paul Kimmage in the Sunday Independent. To be a Lance Armstrong is not just to be a cheat, it is to ruthlessly rip a sport to its rotten core. It is to leave a legacy of lies and deception, a trail of destruction that might be mopped up eventually but will never be fully clean.

Bolger, who has been training thoroughbreds since 1976, thinks racing has a rotten core too. Why else would he make such a statement? So rotten, in fact, that he believes the decay is too demanding for the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board to deal with and has called for the United States Anti-Doping Agency to get involved.

Bolger told Kimmage: “When it is recognised that there is a need to really tackle this problem, I don’t think the IHRB will be in control. I think all of the European racing bodies should now invite Usada to deal with this.”

When it was put to Bolger (below) by Kimmage that his claims are “diminishing or damaging racing”, he replied: “I agree, I am, but in the short term. But in the long term – to use an expression I hate – after the swamp is drained, things will be much healthier. And it’s not for me, because I’ll be gone at that stage.”

Bolger’s claims have even caught the eye of the Irish government. At a time when Ireland is trying to wrangle its way out of a global pandemic, cheating in horseracing is the issue up for discussion.

The Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture will on Monday discuss a proposal to invite the IHRB to a meeting to discuss the claims Bolger has made. On Thursday, Fine Gael TD Paul Kehoe wrote to the chair of the Agriculture Committee, Jackie Cahill, asking for the trainer’s accusations to be examined.

In the letter, Keogh said: “Horseracing is a hugely important industry in Ireland and the integrity of the sport and its reputation, both nationally and internationally, must be protected.”

The IHRB reassured us that testing has never been more frequent or more thorough in a statement they released on Monday evening. It told us there would be 5,000 samples taken in 2021, including every winner as well as out-ofcompetition testing at unlicensed premises. Those samples are sent to LGC (world leaders in anabolic steroid detection for over 60 years) for rigorous testing and any adverse analytical finding is acted upon, the IHRB insisted.

In that same statement released by the IHRB, Horse Racing Ireland’s chief executive Brian Kavanagh said: “It is crucial that continuous investment is made in ensuring that testing is constantly increasing in both numbers and agility, utilising the most modern techniques, and is of an internationally accredited standard. HRI has consistently increased its investment in antidoping through the IHRB in recent years, and that will continue to be the case.”

TESTING has never been more rigorous, it seems, yet Bolger is claiming that drug use is the number-one problem in Irish racing, that it has been going on for the last 20 years and that there will be a Lance Armstrong. So where does that leave us?

Since Sunday I have asked numerous people in the industry about Bolger’s comments, those who have worked in stables up and down the country, and the reply was unanimous: “Well, if it is happening, I haven’t seen it anywhere.” Nobody has.

Bolger chose not to broach the subject after Poetic Flare’s virtuoso performance.

“The two aren’t related, I’m very happy about it [the victory] and I’d be happy to talk about the drug problems tomorrow, or the next day, but not this evening.”

Maybe that evening was the right time to talk about it. He had a global audience and his opinion would sail all around the world in seconds.

For now, the wait continues. Is there is a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing? The thought makes me want to vomit.

‘Potentially the best horse Jim Bolger has ever trained is in danger of being overshadowed by the biggest claim he has ever made’

Aidan O’Brien has a good record in this and you can’t knock the impression Point Lonsdale made when winning his maiden, but Godolphin beat one of his hotpots two years ago when Pinatubo saw off Lope Y Fernandez and I can see that happening again. New Science won what looked a good Yarmouth novice three weeks ago and is a more appealing option.

THE COMMENT PAGE

en-ie

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

2021-06-19T07:00:00.0000000Z

https://racingpost.pressreader.com/article/281771337147547

Racing Post