Nicky Henderson- At Last Some Sense is Spoken..

The tabloids have spouted some absolute rubbish on Nicky Henderson’s recent case where he was found guilty by teh BHA. Charlie Brooks puts forward the educated case for the defence…

Henderson Case..Get Real say Brooks

Daily Telegraph…today 29th June, Charlie Brooks

My prediction has been proved spectacularly accurate in athletics and cycling. The busting of Victor Conte’s Bay Area Laboratory Co-Operative [BALCO] in California, for instance, was sensational and brought down some big names. And the Tour de France has been pretty messy. But it would appear that, bar a few not particularly sophisticated incidents, I have been wrong about racing in this country. And that surprises me. Because there is more money at stake in horse racing than there is in human sports.

There are three explanations for my apparent misjudgment. Firstly, there are cheats out there, but they’re ahead of the testers. Whatever they’re using either does not show up or can be masked. Secondly, the deterrents which have been put in place have worked. Freezing samples and testing in training, which I called for 10 years ago, make a lot of sense. Before such measures were brought in the sport was in a very naïve place. Or thirdly, I just badly misjudged our horsemen’s natures.

On Monday Nicky Henderson will be putting his mitigating circumstances in front of the British Horseracing Authority as to why one of his horses came to race and test positive to the banned substance tranexamic acid. It would appear that the test which identified this drug is new. Which is encouraging, as the developement of new tests will always be the most effective deterrent. Only this year the third placed rider in the Tour de France was thrown out by a new test which wasn’t available during the Tour. Such a development should make the riders think twice about the risks of cheating.

This is the Key part of Brooks’ argument…

But the point needs making that Henderson’s case is an irrelevance as far as the fight against doping is concerned. tranexamic acid is meant to help with bleeding in the horse’s lungs and won’t make a horse run any faster than it is naturally capable of. It is not a performance enhancing drug in the context of BALCO. Of course Henderson has to carry the can for a horse in his care failing a test, but the BHA must make sure the punishment fits the crime. A fine is the appropriate punishment on this occasion. Anything over and above that, such as a ban, would be a clear demonstration that the BHA do not understand where the fight against drug cheats lies.And that in itself would bring the sport and its governing body into disrepute.

Racing Diary Says…

Bang on! Nicky Henderson is not a cheat and clearly was not trying to cheat in any way. Yes he made an error and should pay a fine, its not incompetence, as clearly he is not that, but he has made an error and not done much for his or the sports’s reputation. The suggestion by some that he should face a ban and the comparisons to other cases that are totally different just show the lack of either research or knowledge some tabloid hacks have.

I am not in the camp of Henderson being such a great bloke, so lets treat him nicely. I am in the camp of being real. Day in day out betting patterns are followed by questionable runs, read the Betfair forum….

The BHA should do more in other areas. The punishments handed out in ‘corruption cases’ are tame and for them to ban Henderson for this would be nothing more than a PR stunt. What happened is not ‘cheating’ and is not the same as the recent Matt Gingell case where a trainer was banned for using a substance to make the horse run faster and then tried to cover it up. Henderson has been professional and fully co-operated and when you look at the facts, not the sensationalist headlines, but the facts the case is absolutely and totally different.

Was this not a horse owned by the Queen and not such a high profile trainer with such a brilliant record it would go unreported, as many such cases have and the appropriate punishment issued.

Lets hope the BHA are more along Charlie Brooks’ line than some of the rubbish spouted in the tabloids recently. The sport would be doing itself no favours and what it has done is shown how poor SOME AREAS of the racing press actually are.

Good luck Mr Henderson, and we know you are not what some in the media have made you out to be.

Please note I have not made any reference to Nicky Henderson’s achievements, which in this context do not matter, but are actually outstanding!