Horse Racing-Godolphin Hands Trainers Full Responsibility After Doping Scandal

Godolphin, hit by a doping scandal last year, has given its trainers ultimate responsibility for running their horse racing stables and scrapped a racing manager post to improve oversight, it said on Tuesday.

The operational changes should also help safeguard horse welfare and ensure compliance with all relevant laws and regulations, the stable, owned by Dubai ruler Sheikh Mohammed bin Rashid al-Maktoum, said on its website after undertaking an internal review.

“Trainers Saeed bin Suroor of Al Quoz Stables and Godolphin Stables, and Charlie Appleby of Moulton Paddocks and Godolphin Marmoom Stables will be the people ultimately responsible for their particular stables,” Godolphin said.

“They hold the delegated authority of the owner as defined by the condition of their license. As a result of these changes, the position of Racing Manager for Godolphin no longer exists,” it added.

The announcement came after a report published this month that was critical of Godolphin and other parts of Sheikh Mohammed’s equine operations, citing “management failings, insufficient oversight and complacency”.

On Monday, Simon Crisford, Godolphin’s manager for over 22 years, said he had resigned from his post. He will now become a racing adviser of Sheikh Mohammed, also Prime Minister of the United Arab Emirates, and his royal family.

Godolphin’s reputation suffered a serious blow last year, when the British Horseracing Authority banned former trainer Mahmood al-Zarooni for administering anabolic steroids to horses at his Moulton Paddock stables in Newmarket.

U.K. border authorities last year seized a shipment of unlicensed veterinary goods from a Dubai government jet.

The affairs caused serious embarrassment to Sheikh Mohammed, the U.K.’s leading racehorse owner and a keen endurance rider, who closed Zarooni’s stables with around 200 horses and ordered internal investigation.

Zarooni won the Dubai World Cup – the world’s richest horse race for Godolphin in 2012 – with Monterosso, as well as English Classics the St Leger and 1,000 Guineas.

In September, Princess Haya, Sheikh Mohammed’s wife and a president of the International Equestrian Federation (FEI), appointed former London police chief Lord Stevens to oversee an internal inquiry into the sheikh’s global equine interests.

Lord Stevens’s report cleared Sheikh Mohammed of any wrongdoing and concluded that Zarooni had acted alone.

Godolphin now plans to announce a new board of directors, whose members will include royal racehorse owner Sheikh Juma bin Dalmook al-Maktoum, the stable said.

Hugh Anderson will become managing director of Godolphin Management Company Limited, overseeing all services in support of the trainers. He will remain Chief Operating Officer, reporting to the board of directors.

Godolphin trainers in the United States, France and Ireland will report to Owner Representative John Ferguson

Godolphin have won 209 Group One races in different countries since Sheikh Mohammed established training operations in Dubai and England in 1992.