Mullins fined and Final Demand disqualified after Cheltenham failed test

Willie Mullins was fined and his horse Final Demand disqualified from the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at the Cheltenham Festival after a post-race sample found a prohibited substance in the horse's system in the race on March 11.

Final Demand finished second to Kitzbuhel in the Grade One Brown Advisory Novices' Chase at Cheltenham.

An independent British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel said: "Final Demand ran in the Grade One event at the Festival on March 11 with a Category B Prohibited Substance (mepivacaine) in its body." The panel identified the substance as mepivacaine, a local anaesthetic commonly used to treat racehorses.

The panel added that Mullins "failed to declare use of mepivacaine on the horse in its medical declaration forms submitted prior to the race". Expert evidence suggested the "low dose... entered the horse very close to the time of sampling" and the investigation was unable to ascertain how it happened, given the precautions taken at the yard.

Judicial panel chair Sarah Crowther KC said: "There is no suggestion that Mr Mullins or any of his staff knew of any administration of mepivacaine, and the BHA accepts that reasonable precautions were in place."

In the course of the investigation it emerged CCTV footage of a yard where the horse was kept had not been retained, which racecourses are required to do. The panel was informed "that the hard drive containing the footage had been misplaced"; Crowther said that fact should not be "overstated" as the horse had been moved to a different yard at the time of receiving the dose and that that footage was obtained and reviewed.

The disciplinary panel disqualified Final Demand from the Grade One Brown Advisory Novices' Chase and imposed fines: Willie Mullins was fined £1,100 and Cheltenham racecourse was fined £5,000 for the rule breach.