Final Demand disqualified from Cheltenham race as Mullins and racecourse fined

Final Demand has been disqualified from a Cheltenham Festival race and trainer Willie Mullins fined £1,100 following a positive test for a prohibited substance. BBC Sport reported that an independent British Horseracing Authority disciplinary panel found the horse had mepivacaine in its system when it raced in the Brown Advisory Novices' Chase on 11 March.

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The horse had finished second in the Grade One contest. The panel identified mepivacaine as a Category B prohibited substance; it is a local anaesthetic used in the treatment of racehorses. The disciplinary findings also included Mullins' failure to declare its use on the medical declaration forms submitted for Final Demand before the race.

However, the investigation did not establish how the substance had entered the horse's system. Expert evidence indicated that a low dose had been received shortly before sampling. Judicial panel chair Sarah Crowther KC said there was no suggestion that Mullins or his staff knew of any administration, and that the BHA accepted reasonable precautions had been taken at the yard. The finding therefore did not establish knowing administration by the trainer or his staff.

A separate issue emerged over the handling of CCTV recordings during the investigation. Footage from a yard where Final Demand had been kept was not retained, despite a requirement for racecourses to preserve it. The panel was told that the hard drive holding those recordings had been misplaced. Cheltenham was fined £5,000 for that breach, separate from the penalty imposed on Mullins.

Crowther cautioned against attaching too much significance to the missing footage. Final Demand had moved to another yard by the time the dose was received, and recordings from that location were obtained and examined. The missing hard drive therefore did not mean investigators had been unable to review footage from the yard relevant to the timing identified by the expert evidence.

The ruling removes Final Demand's second-place finish from the March race while leaving the source of the substance unresolved. As BBC Sport's account makes clear, the panel imposed penalties for the prohibited-substance and recording-related breaches without finding that Mullins or his staff knowingly administered mepivacaine.