A Cheltenham Festival-winning trainer has been slapped with a six-month suspended ban and fined £9,500 after his winning horse failed a drugs test.
Tony Martin, who won the William Hill Trophy Handicap Chase with Dun Doire at the 2006 festival, had Flat runner Firstman test positive for lidocaine – a cutting agent in cocaine.
Martin, left, has trained winners for the likes of JP McManusSportsfile
This is his third winner in four years that has failed a drugs test.
Moonmeister was disqualified from a Curragh win in 2019 while last year’s Down Royal bumper winner Patsy’s Honour also tested positive.
Lidocaine is used to block pain and is a banned substance on racedays.
Firstman won a 2m race on the Irish all-weather track in January of this year after being sent off 13-8 fav under jockey Billy Lee.
During a Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board hearing, Martin said the finding could have come about from contaminated paper bedding at Dundalk when Firstman was stabled there.
This was rejected by the panel, while an inspection of his stables the following month could not identify the source of the substance.
Hair and blood samples were taken from nine horses and there were no positive results.
The IHRB could not determine how the horse came to test positive.
However they handed Martin the fine for failing to maintain a complete medicine register at his yard in Ireland.
Martin’s six-month ban has been suspended for two years.
The trainer has won the Galway Hurdle four times and trained top horses such as the JP McManus-owned Anibale Fly.