February 17, 2011
By Staff Reporter
When his horse Waterford Crystal tested positive for the banned human anti-psychotic drugs fluphenazine and zuclopenthixol after his gold medal triumph, it appeared likely that O’Connor would lose his medal. However, the FEI accepted that he had not deliberately attempted to enhance the performance of the horse.
“Obviously, it’s a disappointment, a huge disappointment,” said the 25-year-old, whose godfather is the Irish business and media magnate Tony O?Reilly, “but the medal has to go under the rules. I’m pleased that I have been vindicated of any deliberate wrongdoing.”
Even though the FEI cleared O’Connor of any attempt to enhance Waterford Crystal’s performance, it has a zero-tolerance regarding banned substances, so along with the loss of his medal, the rider was also suspended for three months and ordered to pay 5,000 swiss francs toward the cost of the hearing.
At the end of the 12-hour hearing before the judicial committee, O’Connor’s legal representative refused to rule out an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.
“Everything must be considered, nothing is ruled in, nothing is ruled out,” he said.
Following the Waterford Crystal test result last summer, it also emerged that another of O’Connor’s horses, ABC Landliebe, had tested positive for sedatives at an event in Italy in May of last year.
The case has been dogged by controversy since Waterford Crystal’s positive doping test. The B sample of the horse’s urine was sensationally stolen en route to a top laboratory in England, and then in a further twist, the offices of the Equestrian Federation of Ireland in County Kildare were broken into and a file on ABC Landliebe stolen.
O’Connor and his vet, James Sheeran, had always maintained that the banned drugs were administered to Waterford Crystal well in advance of the Olympic Games. Apparently, the medication was given to keep the horse calm while he received hydrotherapy treatment for a mild injury.
However, the drugs are licensed for human use only, and by way of explanation Sheeran said at the time that he did not wish to administer equine drugs as that might have had the effect of making the horse unsteady.
“I wish to emphasize again that neither I nor my vet have done anything wrong,” O’Connor said after last weekend’s verdict. “To get to the Olympics was my aim for many years and I never contemplated doing anything which might jeopardize this goal. I am disappointed that a technical infraction has resulted in the loss of the gold medal for Ireland.”
O’Connor has 30 days from the completion of the FEI’s full written verdict to lodge an appeal to the Court of Arbitration for Sport.