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Buckingham Palace release statement on monarch's filly
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Contaminated feed believed to be reason behind shock news
The Queen greets Estimate after her horse's victory in the Gold Cup at Royal Ascot last year. Photograph: Julian Herbert/Action Images |
The
racehorse owned by the Queen that won the Ascot Gold Cup last year has tested
positive for morphine, Buckingham Palace announced on Tuesday night.
Estimate, a
five-year-old filly trained by Sir Michael Stoute, came second in the same race
this year, and is one of five horses understood to have recorded a positive
test for the banned substance. The palace said they believed the morphine had
come via consumption of a contaminated feed product.
John
Warren, the Queen's bloodstock and racing adviser, said: "On Thursday 17
July the British Horseracing Authority [BHA] announced that a number of
post-race samples, obtained from recent race meetings, had been found to
indicate the presence of morphine, which is a prohibited substance on race
days. Five horses, under the care of various trainers, were affected. I can
confirm that one of those horses was Estimate, the five-year-old filly trained
by Sir Michael Stoute and owned by the Queen. Initial indications are that the
positive test resulted from the consumption of a contaminated feed product. Sir
Michael is working closely with the feed company involved to discover how the
product may have become contaminated prior to delivery to his stables."
Warren
added: "As the BHA investigates this matter, including potential links
between the different cases, Sir Michael continues to offer his full
co-operation. There will be no further comment until the BHA announces its
considered findings. … Her Majesty has been informed of the situation."
Feed
supplier Dodson & Horrell issued a statement the day after the BHA
announcement saying it had been informed by its suppliers of possible
contamination in one of its products.
The Queen's
victory in the 2013 Gold Cup was hugely popular and marked the first victory in the feature race at the meeting for a reigning British monarch.
It is not
the first time the Queen has been connected with a drugs scandal in horse
racing. In 2009 Nicky Henderson was fined £40,000 and banned from making entries for three months after Moonlit Path, a horse in his care owned by the
Queen, was injected with a banned blood-clotting agent on the day of a race.
Charlie Hills, who is based in Lambourn, is the only other trainer to have so
far to have confirmed that one of his horses has tested positive in the current
morphine case.
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