Toffs on horses caught doping their mounts in Hong Kong

Lord Patel in his youth worked for Robert Jackson who founded the North Wales Mountain Zoo. An abiding lesson was, as Bob said, "The devil has hooves and anything with hooves has the devil in it" ... resulting in a lifelong dread and fear of ungulates such as goats, sheep, cows and especially horses.

A recent dose of shingles and what we doctors now call postherpetic neuralgia (PHN), left him with a crippling condition characterized by chronic burning, shooting, aching, tearing, nagging, jabbing or lancing pain , this can be reduced (it is said) by the topical application (ie on the skin) of capsaicin (derived from chilli peppers) in 0.025% solution. It is said to deplete substance P, which is a mediator for pain impulses. (?)

For this purpose it is not only used by grumpy blogistes but is also used in horses , however the use of capsaicin as a medication is banned in Olympic and probably other such show jumping events.

This magical substance , can have hypersensitising effects (?) or act as a pain relief that, in both cases, can improve the performance of the horse as they clatter very painfully over the fences. The riders don't feel a thing - except the humiliation and embarassment of being found out cheating.

As a result of finding residues (which it has hitherto beeen difficult to detect as it disappears quickly from the horse's systems) in 4 horses in the Hong Kong makey uppey ,horsey horsey Olympic events - Ireland's Denis Lynch, riding Lantinus, Norway's Tony Andre Hansen on Camiro, who had led the individual standings after 3 rounds. Brazil's Bernardo Alves on Chupa Chup and Germany's Christian Ahlmann on Coster have all been banned.

The German teams veterinary surgeon Dr. Björn Nolting explains that capscaicin " .. has primarily a blood circulation-promoting effect".

Lynch who rides individually because the Ireland team did not qualify, who had jumped 3 clear rounds, admits using a product called Equi-block, which contains capsaicin, on his horse.

If the horses' B sample tests (expected pronto from The Hong Kong Jockey Club who lead the field in equine drug-testing - Friday, 22 August, at 10 o'clock ) confirm their A samples, their countries will be disqualified from the team show jumping, which took place on Monday.

The announcement throws into doubt the medal order of that competition as Norway won a bronze medal with 27 points , so Switzerland with 30 points would/will move up and GB with 37 points will move up from 7th to 6th, or if Germany who were 5th are expelled, to 5th place.

In the Athens Olympics Germany's Ludger Beerbaum was disqualified when his mount Goldfever 3, tested positive for the steroid betamethasone. The use of Betamethasone in horses may be detected for up to three days in urine, albeit at very low concentrations. He finally lost an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport in May 2005. As a result the International Equestrian Federation stripped Germany of the title, and gave the gold to the United States. Sweden moved up to silver and Germany dropped to bronze.

Beerbaum has denied cheating, saying the substance was in an ointment used to treat a skin irritation on the horse.

The Irishman Cian O'Connor was also stripped of his individual gold medal on Waterford Crystal, he decided not to appeal and Brazil's Rodrigo Pessoa received the Athens Olympic Gold medal for the individual show jumping event in September 2005. As a result, Chris Kappler of the United States moved up to the Silver medal and Marco Kutscher of Germany got the Bronze - the team mate of Ludger Berrman on the DZ Bank show jumping team.

It's a fair assumption given the highly stifled response from the horsey types that drug use is as prevalent in their sports as field athletics, thanks to the Hong Kong Jockey Clib the offenders have been caught with their trousers down. Not ideal when dealing with horses.

Bit of a mystery why the owner / riders aren't banned as athletes are.

Betamethasone is related to triamcinolone acetonide which was found in Morgan Hamm the US gymnast before the US championships's for which he received a very nasty slap across the wrist - Thursday, July 10, 2008 Hamm Bros. Jumping through the Olympic rings