Golden dream that ended in nightmare
There are too many questions to be answered about Lantinus's positive test to expect a swift conclusion, writes John O'Brien
If capsaicin was a prohibited substance, why would he allow it anywhere near his tack box?
WHEN they appear, we like our doping stories to be cut and dried. A top athlete testing positive for 100 times the legal limit of testosterone; a Tour de France cyclist caught with a phial of EPO in his saddlebag. They can vehemently proclaim their innocence, blame an administrative error or a sinister conspiracy and we can turn a deaf ear, safe in the knowledge that against such proof there can be no defence or redeeming caveats.
With Denis Lynch it is more difficult to be on certain ground. From the moment it was announced on Thursday afternoon that his horse Lantinus had tested positive for the banned substance, capsaicin, hours before they were due to compete in the individual showjumping final in Hong Kong, his case hasn't followed the usual patterns we expect in these instances.
Not only did the rider vehemently protest his innocence, but he stormed into an emotional press conference carrying the source of the offending substance, a tub of Equi-Block, an equine pain reliever similar to Deep Heat used by humans and which Lynch claimed he applied to the horse's lower back to warm it prior to exercise. On the container was written the words 'Contains capsaicin' and 'will not test positive'.
Yesterday Marcus Swail, the Irish team vet, said that when he informed Lynch of the news, the rider immediately walked to Lantinus's stable, reached inside a tack box and grabbed the tub of Equi-Block. For Swail that was a certain pointer of Lynch's innocence. "If you knew it was illegal to use it," he said, "you would hardly leave it sitting in a box at the front of the stable where anyone could see it, would you? Denis was horrified."
Perhaps, but you could read it another way too. Why would Lynch immediately reach for the Equi-Block when he learned of the positive test? Had it crossed his mind previously that it might contain a prohibited substance? Did the writing on the label not at least bear deeper scrutiny as he prepared for the Olympics? Even if the risk seemed miniscule was it worth taking before the biggest week of his career?
For Lynch there is the harsh reality of a bottom line here. If capsaicin was a prohibited substance, why would he allow it anywhere near his tack box or within a mile of his stable yard in the first place, regardless of what the label said? He is a seasoned rider now and seasoned riders would know that the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) has followed a zero tolerance line on doping since the Waterford Crystal fiasco four years ago.
They were warned far in advance of the Games. Hong Kong, where the equestrian events would be staged, housed the top equine testing laboratory in the world. "Our record is very good," said the laboratory's head, Terence Wan, back in March. "We find a lot of drugs that are missed by other labs." Just because Lantinus had tested clear on 11 occasions this year didn't make him invulnerable. On the 12th his sample turned up positive.
The extraordinary and complicating factor came with the news that three other horses had tested positive for the exact same substance. So we know that at least four riders in the individual jumping contest arrived with substances containing capsaicin in their belongings, each evidently believing that they would not be at risk when it came to doping control.
Even more pertinently, the four were part of the 15 horses randomly chosen for testing after the second round of jumping last Sunday, a casualty rate of over 25 per cent for the same substance. By extension you could speculate that of the 35 original starters for Thursday's final up to 10 of them might have been guilty of doping. For a sport trying desperately to get to grips with the drugs' culture, it is a sobering hypothesis.
Of course it is entirely plausible that Lynch, as he maintains, used Equi-Block merely to warm up his horse before exercise. Horses with a cold back are notoriously uncomfortable to ride and need to feel warm to be relaxed. Many riders keep solariums for the purpose but a substance like Equi-Block, easily obtained over the counter or on the internet, would be a practical substitute while away.
With capsaicin, however, the FEI suspect more sinister uses. It doesn't just have pain-relieving properties, but can also promote hypersensitivity and, applied to a horse's legs, it could make them more sensitive and thus encourage the horse to jump higher to avoid the stinging pain of hitting poles. Lynch and Swail strenuously resisted the suggestion that Equi-Block could be an effective method for a process known as "chemical rapping."
It may be in Lynch's favour that while the tests can reveal the presence of capsaicin they cannot show to which part of the horse's body the substance was applied. Only the rider knows and Lynch is adamant it was only to the horse's back. The FEI will probably counter by saying that the mere presence in the horse's system is sufficient to warrant disqualification from competition and, likely after a hearing next month, a ban.
For his part, Lynch will await the opening and result of the B sample and ponder his next move. Given his protestations of innocence it would be no surprise if he contested any decision to hand him a suspension. Already one of the four disqualified riders, Tony Andre Hansen of Norway, has indicated his intention to fight the charge and it will be interesting to see if any of the others follow. Whatever happens, though, it won't be enough to save Lynch's Olympic dream and for the ambitious 32-year-old rider, following in Cian O'Connor's footsteps will bite hard.
Lynch had reached Beijing through a hard route that took him from his native Tipperary to the horse-rich countryside of Munster in northern Germany. Along the way he met Thomas Straumann, a mega-rich Swiss businessman with an interest in horses. He was down on his luck but it was about to change. Straumann liked what he saw in the spiky, confident rider and soon they were hatching plans together. "Wouldn't it be nice," Straumann told him last summer, "if we could find a horse for the Olympics?"
They found Lantinus and, this year, they swept all before them on the Grand Prix circuit and in the Global Champions Tour. By summer Lantinus was rated the top jumping horse in the world and a top contender for Olympic gold. Riding the best horse in the world, Lynch wondered why would he be tempted to cheat.
Why too, you wonder, would he ever have left himself exposed to the risk?
