Saddle Up probe hots up

PUNE, JULY 29: The Forum for Fair and Clean Racing (FFCR) has taken up the issue of Saddle Up, the winner of The Indian Derby 1999 who wa...

PUNE, JULY 29: The Forum for Fair and Clean Racing (FFCR) has taken up the issue of Saddle Up, the winner of The Indian Derby 1999 who was found positive for two substances, Finadyne and Dicolofenac.

An inquiry by the Royal Western India Turf Club authorities has not reached a conclusion. There is an impression that as the horse belongs to Vijay Mallya, a committee member of RWITC, the issue is being dragged. It is not Mallya but PK Daruwalla, Managing Director of United Racing and Bloodstock Breeders Ltd, has taken up the issue on the specific statement of trainer Imtiaz A Sait who groomed Saddled Up which ascerts that these medications (detected in the sample) were never administered to the horse.

It is understood that Daruwalla possesses scientific documents forwarded to the Stewards of the Club that reveal serious malpractices. The samples, it is believed, did not belong to Saddle Up.

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M/s FA Poncha and Ram Khanna, the joint conveners of FFCR, have written to the Chairman of the Stewards RWITC that the Saddle Up case brings up several important issues which “our Club needs to resolve in the interest of fair racing”.

The conveners have further said the evidence in their possession indicates that the RWITC’s system of collecting the sample and forwarding it to Hong Kong or New Market for analysis is not adequate to safeguard the interests of all parties concerned.

According to them, the sample was shown to be contaminated. However, they prefer not to comment on the inquiry which is under progress but demanded that Club should agree that it is its obligation and duty to make sure that a sample is drawn, preserved and forwarded in such a way that no contamination can take place.

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