Impressive Trials day winner Sixmilebridge set to be disqualified after failing dope test - but Cheltenham Festival still the aim

Turners Novices' Hurdle contender Sixmilebridge is set to be disqualified from his victory at Cheltenham on Trials day after testing positive for a banned substance.

Trainer Fergal O’Brien confirmed that Sixmilebridge would be able to run at next week’s Cheltenham Festival and that he had ordered pre-race testing to take place on his intended runners at the meeting to ensure they were clear of prohibited medications.

He said on Tuesday: “We’ve had a positive A sample and a positive B sample. Other than that, the BHA is still doing ongoing investigations. We know that he had a joint injection three weeks before Cheltenham Trials day and we’re fairly certain that’s where it’s come from.”

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Speaking on the Nick Luck Daily podcast, O’Brien said Sixmilebridge had been given a medication permitted for horses in training 22 days before his runaway win in a Grade 2 on Trials day. The BHA stipulates that horses must not be given injections less than 14 days before running.

Fergal O'Brien: "Everyone at home is pretty devastated about it. We have to put it right now"Credit: Edward Whitaker

O’Brien said: ”It’s disappointing for the owners and I apologise to the owners, it’s disappointing to the jockey, Kielan Woods, and everyone at home is pretty devastated about it. We have to put it right now and that’s what we’re going to try and do.

“He’s not excreted [the medication] as well as he should’ve done, or we thought he would’ve done. 

“He can legally run next week. It was a perfectly legal injection that we used on the horses and we’ve chosen to do elective testing on all of our Cheltenham runners. We’ll take a urine test at home and they’ll be tested in Newmarket, so we’re trying to cover every base so that it doesn’t happen again.”

Owned by Andrew and Jane Megson, Sixmilebridge had won three and been second in four starts this season for O'Brien prior to testing positive. Last season, when trained by Ben Pauling, Sixmilebridge finished 17th of 19 in the Weatherbys Champion Bumper at the Cheltenham Festival.

Sixmilebridge is a general 14-1 shot for the Turners after decisively ending the unbeaten run of Potters Charm at the end of January, but the Nigel Twiston-Davies-trained ace will now be awarded first place in that contest.

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