Three-year ban for billionaire trainer after investigation into doping scandal

14 September 2023 , 15:31

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Luke Comer: had training licence withdrawn for three years (Image: RACINGFOTOS.COM)

Trainer and billionaire businessman Luke Comer has had his licence suspended for three years and been hit with costs and fines of more than £720,000 after a huge doping scandal was uncovered in Ireland.

Comer was sanctioned after a “quite unprecedented” case in which 12 of his horses tested positive for the anabolic steroids methandienone and methyltestosterone which are classified as prohibited at all times.

Three years ago Comer trained the highest priced winner in history when He Knows No Fear won a race at 300-1.

It was He Knows No Fear who triggered an investigation when a hair sample taken from the horse at Leopardstown in October 2021 returned a positive result for the two banned steroids. Out of competition tests of 11 other horses were also positive.

A nine-day hearing of the IHRB’s Referrals Committee was held in May this year at which Comer “acknowledged the presence of the prohibited substances” on the first day,

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But he said he denied either he or any of his staff were involved in “doping the animals”, according to the IHRB report into the case.

Comer suggested “environmental contamination” could be to blame, pointing to the possibility of contaminated hay.

The Committee said there was “no convincing case” to support contamination, neither was there evidence that the positives were the result of deliberate administration.

It concluded that “the large number of animals involved warrants a withdrawal of the Respondent’s licence for a period of three years commencing on 1st January, 2024.”

Jon Lees