Gerard Butler banned

GERARD BUTLER has been banned for five year by the BHA disciplinary panel.

He pleaded pleading guilty to all seven charges relating to the use of Sungate on horses in his care.

The panel summarised Butler’s actions as “an appalling breach of his duty to look after the interests of the horses in his care and amounted to conduct that was seriously prejudicial to the integrity, proper conduct and good reputation of horseracing in Great Britain”.

Butler faced seven charges relating to the use of Sungate, including administering intra-articular injections to four horses himself despite him not being a registered veterinary surgeon, with nine of his horses testing positive for the banned steroid stanozolol.

Shortly after Godolphin trainer Mahmood Al Zarooni was warned off the sport for eight years having been found guilty of administering performance-enhancing steroids to 15 horses in his care, Butler announced he was the focus of a second steroids investigation.

Members of the Butler string tested positive for stanozolol after they were selected for random testing in February, but the trainer claimed the substance involved, Sungate, was an accepted remedy that had been widely prescribed to more than 100 horses by vets in Newmarket.

While the BHA identified nine other trainers who used the drug, no charges were brought because there were no positive samples and the treatments were advised and administered by vets and fully recorded to medical records.

However this loophole was closed at the end of last month with the BHA amending its rules so that from December 1 a trainer may be charged if certain prohibited substances are administered to horses in their care or control, without the requirement for a positive sample to have been obtained.