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Aidan O’Brien has sensationally withdrawn all of his riders from tomorrow’s Arc meeting at Longchamp due to tainted feed.
O’Brien’s sons and their training partners Joseph and Donncha, who had leadership opportunities in the Group 1 races, also pulled all of their players out of the Paris venue.
Aidan was to ride Mogul, Japan, Serpentine and Sovereign in the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the richest horse race in Europe.
It emerged on Friday that Gain Equine Nutrition said they were “investigating the possible presence of a contaminant in some batches of our range of equine feed.”
And because O’Brien had fed his horses Gain products through Thursday night, blood and urine samples were sent from his riders for urgent testing.
But in a big blow to the prestigious meeting, Ballydoyle Racing broke the news Saturday night that the results had been positive for the banned substance zilpaterol, which had contaminated the food.
“Unfortunately, the results of the urine samples taken from the horses yesterday have come back positive in the French laboratory,” Ballydoyle Racing said tonight.
“There is a possibility that the contaminant has left your system by the time of tomorrow’s races, however we have no guarantee of this and to protect the integrity of the races we have to remove all of our horses from tomorrow’s races.” .
“Joseph and Donnacha O’Brien will do the same.”
Aidan also intended to direct the favorite St. Mark’s Basilica in the Qatar Jean-Luc Lagardere Award.
Joseph was going to race Pretty Gorgeous at the Qatar Marcel Boussac Award.
And Donncha had entered Fancy Blue competing for favoritism at the Prix de l’Opera Longines.
The defections leave Enable now facing 10 opponents in the big race as he seeks a third victory in the mile and a half competition.
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