RWITC to ask HFL for feed testing possibility

MUMBAI: In the ongoing inquiry about the positive testing of three top horses for steroid Boldenone, the Royal Western India Turf Club (RWITC) has decided to enquire with UK-based Horseracing Forensic Laboratory (HFL), on whether they can test the feed supplement. This, despite not getting a clear consent from the trainers.
According to sources, though the trainers want more clarifications on the conditions set by RWITC for feed supplement testing, they also maintain that the club should test the supplement."We don't want to waste time. We want to convey the trainers on what parameters the HFL can test the supplement for alleged contamination," said Vivek Jain, chairman, RWITC.
Pesi Shroff-trained Eloise tested positive after finishing third in the Indian 1000 Guineas, while the other two horses, Ocean And Beyond (trainer Sheraz Sunderji) and Star Future's (trainer Cooji Katrak) urine samples returned positive after they had finished first and second, respectively, in the Indian 2000 Guineas. Both the races were held in December. The horses have been disqualified after their second samples too returned positive.
RWITC is believed to have decided to explore the possibility of supplement testing because even in their unsatisfactory consent, the trainers have never said that they will not accept the test results as final. Sources say that this way the test results, if the testing actually happens, will finally bring the truth out in open. This way even if the results go against them, the trainers or the owners of the said horses will think twice about going to the court of law simply because they have been claiming that the steroid came to their horses via contaminated feed supplement.
The claims of the supplement-maker, German company Boehringer, have also given boost to the RWITC's thinking of exposing the trainers' lie. Boehringer has argued that several hundred units of the same batch of all the products have been supplied the world over (including over 400 units to Indian trainers) and no allegation of contamination has been forthcoming from any other source.