Top horse trainer urges action over stable staff urinating in racehorses’ bedding after runner disqualified
Dean Ivory has been forced to ban certain substances from his yard and enforce a new code of conduct
TOP horse trainer Dean Ivory has demanded action be taken over the problem of stable staff urinating on racehorses' bedding.
One stable lad working with Ivory's horses possibly caused a runner to be disqualified after a painkiller was found in their system - and it is believed it got into the horse from the lad's wee.
Ivory, whose Lancelot Du Lac won the Stewards' Cup at Goodwood, spoke out after Wotadoll was found to have Tramadol in her system when she ran unplaced at Wolverhampton last year.
An investigation has now concluded that was probably due to stable lad Shane Cuddy urinating in Wotadoll's box while he was mucking out.
Following the wee incident for which he was fined £750, Ivory said: "I'm disgusted a member of staff has ever done that. But when talked to Jon Dunne [a BHA investigator], it seems everybody is doing it.
"And it's happening at the races as well."
Fellow trainer David Elsworth was fined £1,000 for "contaminating the bedding" in the box reserved for taking samples from horses at Newmarket.
He said: "If people like David Elsworth are doing it, that doesn't show right to members of staff."
And Ivory added: "I had no idea you could get cross-contamination like that.
"I'm guilty because I'm responsible for my staff, but if I was more aware I could have made my staff more aware.
"I've had to lose a race, I've also been fined and it was very disappointing I had to wait 14 months for an outcome."
Ivory claimed that there is a toilet block right by the stables, so there is no excuse for the foul behaviour.
He said: "If I put a little sign out in the yard saying: 'Please don't urinate in the boxes', owners coming in here will think we're a right tinpot little firm," he said.
Ivory, who has been training horses for 16 years, has employed a former policeman to rewrite his health and safety rules, which now includes a rule against urinating in the boxes.
