Leading flat trainer Kilkenny-based Jim Bolger has been invited to the Dail on July the 6th to substantiate claims over the issue of doping in horse racing.
Bolger, senior members of Horse Racing Ireland, the IHRB, and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association have been asked before an Oireachtas Committee to address Bolger’s comments in the public domain.
The Wexford man told the Sunday Independent there will be ‘a Lance Armstrong in Irish racing’.
The 2000 Guineas winning trainer also questioned the standards of anti-doping testing in racing.
Reaction
Recently, the body that represents Ireland’s racehorse trainers has pointed to an absence of positive drug tests in Irish-trained horses when racing abroad as evidence of how doping isn’t a major problem here.
The Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) said it is “not aware” of the sorts of concerns outlined by Jim Bolger.
The IHRB also insists that they maintain “the highest standards of integrity within Irish racing” and have a “zero-tolerance approach to doping”.
