FEI Tribunal issues Final Decisions

The FEI Tribunal has issued its Final Decisions in two cases involving prohibited substances.

American athletes Adrienne Lyle (FEI ID 10015662/USA), with the horse Horizon (FEI ID 105FJ02/USA), and Kaitlin Blythe (FEI ID 10046212/USA), with the horse Don Principe (FEI ID USA41197/USA), both competed at the CDI3* and CDI-U25 in Wellington, Florida (USA) from 8-12 February 2017. Samples taken from the two horses tested positive for the Banned Substance Ractopamine.

The athletes were able to prove that the presence of the Banned Substance was due to a contaminated supplement and, as a result, the FEI Tribunal accepted that they bore no significant fault or negligence for the rule violations. The Tribunal accepted the agreements reached between the FEI and each of the two athletes, which were submitted on 12 November 2018.

Under the terms of the agreements, the athletes were suspended for three months from the date of notification, 5 April 2017.

The horses were provisionally suspended for two months, starting from 5 April 2017, but as the athletes contested the standard two months provisional suspension at the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS), the provisional suspensions were lifted on 8 May 2017. All results achieved by the two horses at the Wellington event are disqualified. In addition, any international results achieved by the two horses between the lifting of the provisional suspension and 4 July 2017, when the provisional suspension would normally have expired, are retroactively disqualified. 

The athletes were each fined 3,000 CHF and must pay the cost of the B sample analysis and their own legal costs.

The athletes have 21 days to appeal the decisions to the Court of Arbitration for Sport (CAS) from the date of notification of the Final Decisions (18 December 2018).

The FEI Tribunal’s decisions can be found here.

Notes to Editors:

FEI Equine Prohibited Substances

The FEI Prohibited Substances List is divided into two sections: Controlled Medication and *Banned Substances. Controlled Medication substances are those that are regularly used to treat horses, but which must have been cleared from the horse’s system by the time of competition. Banned (doping) Substances should never be found in the body of the horse.

In the case of an adverse analytical finding (AAF) for a Banned Substance, the Person Responsible (PR) is automatically provisionally suspended from the date of notification (with the exception of certain cases involving a Prohibited Substance which is also a **Specified Substance). The horse is provisionally suspended for two months. Information on all substances is available on the searchable FEI Equine Prohibited Substances Database.

**Specified Substances

The FEI introduced the concept of Specified Substances in 2016. Specified Substances should not in any way be considered less important or less dangerous than other Prohibited Substances (i.e. whether Banned or Controlled). Rather, they are simply substances which are more likely to have been ingested by horses for a purpose other than the enhancement of sport performance, for example, through a contaminated food substance.