The most powerful figure in British horse racing, Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid Al Maktoum, is said to have launched an enquiry into how one of his private jets was found to contain equine medicines that are unlicensed for use in the UK.
Among the drugs were hypodermics which should only be given by a vet and 100 doses of Tildren, a drug which encourages regeneration of bone tissue, and which if prescribed would only be given to a horse once or twice a year.
The extraordinary haul of medicines was seized and destroyed at Stansted airport by the UK Border Agency in May. The seizure was followed in August by a Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs raid on Moorley Farm during which more unlicensed were found. The farm, near Newmarket, is owned by Sheikh Mohammed’s Darley breeding operation and used as a summer base for his endurance racing horses, which spend the rest of the year in Dubai.
The Dubai ruler was banned from endurance riding for six months by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) in 2009 after a horse he had ridden tested positive for a steroid, and horses trained in stables owned by the Maktoum family have been implicated in 24 doping cases in the sport since 2005. His junior wife, Princess Haya of Jordan, is FEI president and has campaigned since 2006 for a cleaner sport. She will meet former Metropolitan Police commissioner Lord Stevens on Tuesday to discuss the seizures.
This year, Mohammed’s Moulton Paddocks stables in Newmarket was the site of the biggest doping scandal in British racing history when it emerged that trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni had administered anabolic steroids to 22 racehorses owned by the Sheikh. Al-Zarooni was banned for eight years by the British Horseracing Authority, which did not interview Sheikh Mohammed as part of its investigation into the affair.
