Nicky Henderson horses to be dope-tested at Cheltenham Festival

The British Horseracing Authority is expected to continue to dope-test any runners trained by Nicky Henderson that finish in the first three at Cheltenham this week, after singling out a series of placed horses from the yard for post-race testing on the first day of the Festival meeting. The Authority never comments on its testing procedures, but is understood to feel that it had little choice but to focus attention on Henderson's runners this week after the high-profile scratching of Binocular, the ante-post favourite for the Champion Hurdle, on Sunday. Last year's winner of the race was taken out of the 2011 renewal when it became clear that he would fail a post-race test, due to steroids that had remained in his system after treatment for an allergic reaction. Another horse at Henderson's yard has also failed a test for the same substance recently, while the trainer was also banned from making entries for three months in the summer of 2009 after Moonlit Path, a mare owned by the Queen, tested positive for tranexamic acid, a banned blood-clotting agent, after finishing sixth in a minor race at Huntingdon in February 2009. Every winner at the Festival is tested as a matter of course, but placed horses are not automatically selected for the procedure. Henderson is due to saddle 12 runners at Cheltenham on Wednesday, including Aegean Dawn, who was rated a very doubtful runner in the Coral Cup Handicap Hurdle less than a week ago due to an unspecified problem but has recovered more rapidly than expected. Henderson other runners today include Ericht, one of the favourite for the Festival Bumper, the last race on the card. In all, the BHA carries out between 8,000 and 9,000 post-race tests each year, with only about 20 proving positive.