Sixmilebridge set to lose Trials day victory, but still on course for Festival target

Fergal O’Brien’s Cheltenham Festival-bound Sixmilebridge appears set to be disqualified from his Trials day victory at the track in January after his trainer revealed he had tested positive for a banned raceday substance.

The six-year-old landed the Grade Two Classic Novices’ Hurdle on his last visit to Prestbury Park, beating the highly-regarded Potters Charm by eight and a half lengths under Kielan Woods.

O’Brien said he has since produced a positive test, something his trainer attributes to a joint injection that had not metabolised as expected and was still present in his system when he ran.

O’Brien explained the medication is permitted in horses in training, but British Horseracing Authority rules state the substance cannot still be present when the horse runs and, inadvertently, it was.

“We’ve had a positive A sample and a positive B sample. Other than that, the BHA is still doing ongoing investigations,” O’Brien said on the Nick Luck Daily podcast.

“We know that he had a joint injection three weeks before Cheltenham Trials day and we’re fairly certain that’s where it’s come from.

“It’s disappointing for the owners and I apologise to the owners, it’s disappointing to the jockey, Kielan Woods, and everyone at home is pretty devastated about it. We have to put it right now and that’s what we’re going to try to do.

“He’s not excreted (the medication) as well as he should’ve done, or we thought he would’ve done.”

O’Brien stated the horse is still eligible to run at the Festival, where he is entered for the Turners Novices’ Hurdle and is a leading British-trained contender.

He said: “He can legally run next week. It was a perfectly legal injection that we used on the horses and we’ve chosen to do elective testing on all of our Cheltenham runners.

“We’ll take a urine test at home and they’ll be tested in Newmarket, so we’re trying to cover every base so that it doesn’t happen again.”