Newsweek
There was only one eventing story in the news last week – Jock Paget’s horse Clifton Promise testing positive for the banned substance Reserpine.
When you’ve just won Badminton and Burghley in the same year, this sort of bombshell is understandably going to attract plenty of attention.
Happy memories from Burghley that have now turned sour
Of course, Jock’s horse wasn’t the only eventer whose urine set off alarm bells in science labs across England. Our own Kevin McNab has also been caught up in the biggest eventing scandal since Bettina Hoy crossed the start line twice at the 2004 Athens Olympics. Somewhere along the way his horse Clifton Pinot seems to have got a sniff of the same stuff as Jock’s, and now the eventing world is whipping itself into a frenzy about how it all might have happened.
Perhaps we all need a good calming shot of Rakelin ourselves.
Doping scandals are an unpleasant business in any sport, casting a long, dark shadow over everyone involved – whether they turn out to be innocent or not. And while it’s too early to know any of the details of how this substance came to be in these horse’s urine samples, one way or another there’s always more to these stories than those of us on the outside can possibly know.
It's interesting to note the two different approaches taken by the main players in this story. Almost the whole of New Zealand - including their peak equestrian body - has come out swinging in support of Jock. In a country that's incredibly proud of their sporting icons, perhaps this should not come as a great shock.
What's more surprising is the amount Jock himself has spoken publicly on this matter. He's fronted more media in the past few days than even the most successful of eventers could expect across their entire careers. Whether it's a wise strategy remains to be seen - with doping a strict liability offence backed by mandatory penalties, protestations of innocence can only make a limited difference to the eventual outcome.
On the other hand, as one of the world's most highly regarded eventing riders at this time, perhaps he has no choice.
Kevin McNab at this year's Burghley
In contrast, Kevin McNab and Equestrian Australia seem to have taken the approach that silence is golden.
Whether this is a planned response - or it's just because no one is asking them questions - is unclear. But rather than fanning a fire that they're very much on the periphery of, they've chosen to quietly withdraw into background. It might not make much difference to the eventual outcome, but at this time the fewer headlines with your name in them, the better.
The most sensible analysis of the whole situation has so far come from Andrew Nicholson. A countryman of Jock's who stands to receive the Burghley winner's trophy if he's eventually stripped of it, he was quoted on New Zealand's Live Sport Radio saying that, "Jock is a very genuine bloke and if it does end up going the wrong way for him he’ll pull through it.
There are worse things that have happened. The sport will cope all right with it, he’ll still be able to do his job as you can’t take away his ability to ride and he’s a very genuine person. Mistakes happen, if it comes to that”
It's the truth too. Maybe the 'B' samples will also return a positive result. If they do, it will be terribly disappointing for both the riders and for many in the sport. But if it comes to this, there will no doubt be a reasonable explanation for this substance to have been administered in the first place.
As horse people and athletes ourselves, we all understand the difficulty involved in firstly getting horses to this level; in secondly keeping them sound enough to survive at this level; and thirdly (and most amazingly) getting them performing consistently well enough to win at this level.
It's an astonishingly difficult sport to compete in, and while this in no way excuses or advocates the use of banned substances, it would be ignorant of us all to believe that our equine athletes are never on the receiving end of a gentle poke from a vet.
The best outcome for everyone would be for the testing laboratory to declare that some sort of dreadful mistake has occurred, and that these two riders have been wrongly accused. But in the absence of such a miracle, we should all try to ensure that our judgments and discussions on this matter are fair, reasoned and sensible.
Something that the horse world doesn't always find easy.
See you somewhere out there.
Hamish
