Gordon Elliott will face a BHA hearing after Cheltenham Festival third Zanahiyr failed a post-race drugs test.
The thoroughbred was placed behind Honeysuckle in last year's running of the Champion Hurdle. But in the aftermath of the feature race on day one of the meeting, five-time winner Zanahiyr tested positive for a banned substance.
A statement from the British Horseracing Authority lists it as 3-hydroxylidocaine – a metabolite of lidocaine which is a commonly used local anaesthetic agent in horses. Zanahiyr, who runs in the colours of Bective Stud, won connections £47,745 in the March 15 contest, which took his overall earnings to more than £200,000.
However he could be stripped of the winnings if the British Horseracing Authority's disciplinary panel find Elliott has breached its Rule (K)2.2.
Penalties for such an offence range from fines to disqualification, depending on the level of culpability.
Fourth-placed horse Saint Roi, owned by JP McManus like the runner-up Epatante, would move up to third – and prize money goes right down to eighth.
The BHA statement read: "The independent Disciplinary Panel of the British Horseracing Authority will convene on Wednesday 8 February 2023 to hear the following referral.
"1. Whether or not Licensed Trainer and Responsible Person Mr Gordon Elliott is in breach of Rule (K)2.2 (Presence of a Category B Prohibited Substance)1 of the post-4 January 2022 Rules of Racing due to the presence of a Prohibited Substance (3-hydroxylidocaine) in a post-race urine sample taken from Zanahiyr on 15th March 2022 following the 15:30 Unibet Handicap Hurdle Challenge Trophy over 2 miles and ½ furlong at Cheltenham racecourse.
"2. Zanahiyr should be disqualified from the relevant race under Rule (L)47.4 (Disqualification of horses in races already run)2 because its post-race urine sample tested positive for a Prohibited Substance."
The findings of the test come after Elliott's trainer's licence was reinstated in September 2021. One of the most successful trainers at the Cheltenham Festival, Elliott was given a year ban after a photo of him sitting on a dead horse was circulated.
Six months of the penalty was suspended by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board from March 2021. Elliott is currently placed second in the Irish Trainers' Championship behind Willie Mullins.
Zanahiyr last raced on February 5 at the Dublin Racing Festival, where he finished last of the five runners in the Chanelle Pharma Irish Champion Hurdle.
Victory went to the Mullins-trained State Man, rated the biggest danger to hot favourite Constitution Hill in the Champion Hurdle at Cheltenham this year.
Elliott is also awaiting the return of his number one jockey Jack Kennedy, who fractured his lower leg in two places during a fall last month.
The setback prompted his weighing room colleague Davy Russell, who had only just announced his retirement, to make a surprise return to the saddle.
