Equine muscle relaxant was Irishman's downfall
An orange gooey muscle relaxant is the source of the capsaicin that was found in the positive doping test of Latinus, the horse ridden by Denis Lynch of Ireland.
Irish team veterinarian Marcus Swail said Lynch regularly applied Equi-Block, which contains capsaicin, to the lower back of Latinus as a part of his warm-up routine.
'It was part of his routine during the bigger wins he's had this year,' said Swail, adding the horse had tested negative numerous times this season. 'It's a considerable surprise he has tested positive. Denis was so certain it wasn't a problem he didn't think to draw it to my attention.'
Lynch and Horse Sport Ireland (HIS) were informed yesterday at 2.15pm that Latinus had tested positive for a banned substance. In his preliminary hearing with the International Equestrian Federation, Lynch explained the origin of the substance, but he remained suspended for last night's individual showjumping final.
'I'm shattered,' Lynch said. On the round Equi-Block container (which HSI compared to as an equine version of Deep Heat for humans), the sentence 'contains capsaicin, will not test positive' is highlighted in yellow with 'capsaicin' written in capital letters.
