Steve Guerdat’s Olympic horse fails drugs test

Two of Steve Guerdat’s top horses have tested positive for banned substances in what is suspected to be a case of contamination.

Olympic partner

The Swiss rider’s Olympic gold-medal winning partner Nino des Buissonnets was found to have codeine, oripavine and the controlled medication morphine in his system after winning the Grand Prix at La Baule on 17 May.

Nasa also returned a positive test in La Baule after finishing third in the Derby with the Olympic and World Cup Champion. The horse tested positive for codeine and morphine, and also had traces of oripavine, but not at a sufficiently high level to be declared positive.

Another Swiss horse, Charivari KG, tested positive for the same three substances after competing in the CSIOY (Young Riders) with Alessandra Bichsel in Deauville, France on 8 May.

Contamination

Steve and Alessandra have both been provisionally suspended from the day of notification (20 July 2015), and the three horses have been provisionally suspended for two months.

“The presence in all these samples of oripavine, which is not found in any veterinary products, suggests that this could be contamination, but obviously we still have to follow standard procedure”, said FEI secretary general Sabrina Zeender said.

“The combination of oripavine, morphine and codeine have frequently been seen in contamination cases from other equestrian sport regulators, and the FEI already has three outstanding cases from 2014 involving oripavine and morphine in which we proactively sought the lifting of the provisional suspensions.”

Level playing field

Oripavine is not used clinically due to its narrow therapeutic margin and extremely high toxicity levels. All three substances are analgesics, which are found in poppy seeds.

There was a high-profile case of contaminationin racing last summer, when poppy seeds in equine feed led to the disqualification of The Queen’s racehorse Estimate.

Due to increasing evidence of poppy seed contamination, the FEI downgraded morphine from a banned substance to a controlled medication in 2013. Codeine is also due to be down-graded on 1 January 2016.

The FEI will offer the rider and the horse owner the opportunity for a preliminary hearing before the FEI tribunal to request the provisional suspensions be lifted.

“As the regulator of international equestrian sport, we have to balance fairness to the athletes with our dual role of protecting horse welfare and maintaining a level playing field,”Sabrina said.