Trainer Kieran Cotter has been fined a total of €27,500 by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board following a hearing on Monday.
The handler was fined €2,500 after Slade Runner tested positive for cobalt after winning at Dundalk in January 2021, with the majority of the penalty handed out for breaches found on a subsequent unannounced visit to Cotter’s yard the following month.
The IHRB raised a number of concerns after that inspection, including “used syringes and needles” that “were left lying in a number of locations in the premises” of which Cotter said he was not aware, did not know where they came from and had not used them.
The authority also cited “the apparent general use of veterinary medicines, other than under veterinary supervision which suggested that Mr Cotter was self-medicating some of the horses in his care”, plus “administration via intravenous injection of medicines without veterinary oversight, contrary to proper procedures” and “reckless disregard to the potential effects or consequences to administering the cobalt drench to Slade Runner in particular”.
The IHRB referral committee did not find Cotter in breach of the rules for a possession of illegal substances in his yard, but said his conduct was of a serious nature.
Cotter was found not to have maintained a medicines register for some time prior to the February 2021 inspection, or ensured he and his staff with access to medicines were “fully conversant with the rules and regulations relating to prohibited substances” and he had “failed to be responsible for the safekeeping and administration of medicines having failed to securely lock the medicines’ cabinet”.
That rule breach was deemed the most serious of all and incurred a €20,000 fine.
The handler was fined €5,000 for breaching a rule that states a “trainer is responsible for everything connected with the welfare, training and running of all horses under the care of that trainer and that Slade Runner had been administered cobalt the day before the race.”
Costs of €7,500 were awarded to the IHRB against Cotter.
The full IHRB decision can be read here.
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