THE GUARDIAN (London, UK) 03 March 06 Trainer fined over syringe filled with snake venom (Greg Wood)
Nigel Hawke, who won the 1991 Grand National on Seagram, was fined £300 by the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee yesterday after he admitted being in possession of a syringe filled with a liquid containing snake venom at Exeter racecourse last year.
Hawke, who now trains a string of 20 horses at Crewkerne in Somerset, conceded that he intended to inject the contents of the syringe to one of his horses, but said that he was unaware that it was against the Rules of Racing to administer any substance to a horse less than 24 hours before a race.
Compounds containing snake venom have been used to treat bleeding problems, including haemophilia, in humans in recent years, and are known to be used on horses in training as an aid to stop them bleeding internally during exercise. The substance Bute is used in much the same way but, like venom derivatives, must have cleared a horse's system by the time it gets to a race.
"This substance is quite widely used in training horses, but it can't be in their system on a race day, and cannot be administered just before a race," Owen Byrne, a Jockey Club spokesman, said yesterday. "The panel were persuaded by Nigel Hawke that he was genuinely unaware that this was a prohibited substance on a raceday."
Hawke said later that the result "could have been better and could have been worse." He added: "At the time, I wasn't aware that I was using a prohibited substance. I don't know if many other trainers are using it on racedays. If they are, then now they will know that it is against the rules."
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Trainer fined over syringe filled with snake venom

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