In the News: ‘Sheikh Mohammed outlaws use of anabolic steroids in Dubai horse racing’

That’s a headline from a story in The Guardian about the Sheikh’s movement to crack down on doping.

His decree follows a high-profile doping scandal in one of his stables last month. See our previous story, In the News: FEI President Princess Haya’s husband entangled in racehorse doping scandal. Awkward!).

From The Guardian:

Describing the use of anabolic steroids on at least 22 horses at Godolphin’s Moulton Paddocks in Newmarket as “the unfortunate recent event,” Sheikh Mohammed said in a statement that he “had directed that a decree be issued making, with immediate effect, the import, sale, purchase or use of anabolic steroids in horse sports a criminal offence under the UAE penal laws”.

BBC racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght called Godolphin “racing’s greatest ever drugs scandal.” Mahmood al-Zarooni, the trainer at Moulton Paddock, has been banned from the sport for eight years, although he has lodged an appeal.

Performance-enhancing drug regulations vary from country to country. Britain, where Godolphin is based, has a zero-tolerance policy for performance-enhancing drugs. Dubai, along with other major racing jurisdictions including Australia and the United States, had previously allowed the use of steroids provided that all traces of the drugs had left the horse’s system by the time it competed.

By criminalizing the import, sale or purchase of anabolic steroids, Dubai now has even stricter rules than Britain.

Read the full story here.