Racing trainer convicted over animal remedies

Former Irish Grand National and Royal Ascot-winning trainer Pat Hughes was yesterday convicted of possessing unauthorised animal remedies.

Hughes (72), of Fenniscourt Stud, Bagenalstown, Co Carlow, had pleaded not guilty yesterday at Carlow District Court to eight charges of possession of the unauthorised remedies, including one charge of possessing stanozolol, an anabolic steroid.

However, he was found guilty by Judge Eamon O’Brien and fined €2,500 as well as being told to pay €5,000 in legal costs and €600 in expenses.

Hughes is the trainer of two Irish Grand National winners, most recently Point Barrow in 2006, as well as a Wokingham Handicap winner (Time Machine) at Royal Ascot and a Sun Alliance Chase winner (Antarctic Bay) at the Cheltenham festival.

Surprise inspection

The case was taken by the Department of Agriculture following an unannounced inspection at Mr Hughes’s yard on February 2nd, 2012.

Stanozolol was described in court as being used for “building muscle mass” . There were three bottles found in a Portakabin on Hughes’s property.

Among the other items found by three inspectors during their visit in 2012 were the painkiller Vetalgin; Jurocyl, which is a low dose of arsenic and used as an appetite stimulant; Diurex, which is a diuretic; and aspegic powder, an aspirin-like compound. None of the products is authorised for use on animals in this country.

Department of Agriculture vet Louis Riordan said that on February 1st, 2012, Customs intercepted a package being imported into Ireland from Australia with a number of animal remedies. One of the names included on the invoice as a co-signee was Pat Hughes.

Similar substances

A search warrant was then obtained from a judge in relation to Hughes’s property.

Mr Riordan agreed under cross-examination that none of the products found on Hughes’s premises exactly matched those in the intercepted consignment, but said they were similar because they were “performance-enhancing”.

In his evidence, Hughes said two of the products had been supplied by an Italian vet who treated his horses. Four were placed in his car after a race meeting by a vet who had never come back to collect them. He had “never” given stanozolol or any steroid to his horses.

Judge O’Brien found in favour of the State and said it was a “sad case”.