Bengaluru: The horse in the thick of a doping controversy, Queen Latifa, has come out clean with the B sample test, done at a Mauritius lab, coming back negative.
Queen Latifa's owners came under fire after traces of procaine, a local anaesthetic, was found in the urine samples of the horse by the National Dope Testing Laboratory (NDTL). Later, the B sample was sent to Quanti Lab in Mauritius, one of the listed reference laboratories of the Club, who certified the sample free of any prohibited substance.
The entire issue turned into a controversy only because of NDTL's ignorance over the acceptable limits of procaine. NDTL has since confirmed that they will follow the international standards henceforth. As per European Horse Racing Scientific Liaison Committee recommendation, the approved level of procaine is 10 nanograms per ml and the filly, who was given procaine-penicillin by the club's veterinary hospital as a treatment for abscess, had just 1.2 nanograms per ml in the sample. Queen Latifa raced on March 5, full 25 days after the medicine was administered between January 27 and February 7.
The BTC also hit back at the allegations as 'false propaganda carried out to damage the Club's reputation'. "These were unfounded allegations by certain disgruntled elements to bring disrepute to the sport of horse racing," said BTC steward Ajit Saldana.
Asked about the case that was filed against the club at the High Grounds police station at the end of April, Mr Y. Jagannath, chairman and senior steward at BTC, said, "We believe in Bengaluru police and with this evidence from the B sample, we hope the case will be closed. The allegation was about a cover-up and since the horse has a clean chit, it should be the end of it."
Meanwhile, horses Rafa and Kausir, two others who have come under the doping cloud, are in limbo till their B sample report arrives.
On April 19, Mr Chandregowda, who is a BTC managing committee member and a horse owner, approached the High Grounds police and filed a complaint against BTC CEO S. Nirmal Prasad, Chief Stipendiary Officer Pradyumna Singh, steward Vivek Ubaykar, stable trainer Neil Darashah and well-known breeder/owner Arjun Sajnani for "covering up the dope results". Following the complaint, the police had taken up the investigation.
The BTC committee members on April 23 had unanimously removed BTC Chairman Harinder Shetty from the post following a no-confidence motion against him after he was "found to be fuelling the Queen Latifa controversy".
