Michael Whitaker Suspended for Doping

Michael Whitaker (GBR) has been banned from competition for four months as the result of a positive doping test on his stallion, Tackeray, following the Nations’ Cup in La Baule, France, on May 15th. Tackeray was found with the female hormone altrenogest, which is found in the product Regu-mate, in his system after a mix up with feed buckets at the competition.

The FEI tribunal found that Whitaker had been “negligent” and was, therefore, responsible for the mistake. In a statement to the Tribunal at the disciplinary hearing in September, his groom Cynthia Gurrie, who is no longer employed by Whitaker, said, “It seems inevitable that I either failed to wash the buckets properly or that I gave the wrong feed to the wrong horse on the first day or so that I arrived at the show.”

Whitaker, who was fined £125, will be eligible to compete again on October 25th. As such, he was not able to compete at the European Show Jumping Championships last month.

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