Hordenine cleared

Press, 17 March 1987, Page 44

Hordenine cleared

PA Wellington The owners of horses tested positive to hordenine are free to claim the prizes withheld while the Racing Conference investigated the drug’s effects. Conference secretary, Mr Haf Poland, said yesterday that veterinary consultant, Dr Cliff Irvine, had completed extensive research, which involved administering the drug to horses and discussing findings with an adviser to an overseas turf authority, and he had found it ineffectual on a horse’s performance. Irvine advised the conference he could find no evidence that hordenine

influenced the cardiovascular, respiratory or nervous systems in any detectable way. It was his view that the naturally-occurring drug, produced by a fermentation process involved in the production of a common horse feed which has since been reformulated, was incapable of affecting a horse’s speed, stamina, courage or conduct. Mr Poland said that in the circumstances no further action should be taken by racecourse inspectors in any of the hordenine cases reported by the conference analyst to date, and that no action in the respect of stakes won by those horses would be taken.