The first piece of upbeat news to emerge from the FEI’s new Endurance Strategic Planning Group has been undermined by revelations today that Jaume Punti Dachs, a member of the FEI endurance committee, was raided by a UK government agency who seized 124 medicinal products in August.

Punti Dachs is married to 2010 endurance world champion Maria Alvarez Ponton and trains for Sheikh Mohammed at Moorley Farm East in Newmarket, the main thoroughbred racing centre in England. Moorley is one of many properties owned by Darley, the breeding arm of Sheikh Mohammed’s extensive global racing empire.

The Veterinary Medicines Directorate (VMD) took products unlicensed for use in the UK including “injectables, analgesics, anti-inflammatories and antibiotics” just two weeks after Punti Dachs participated in the round table convened by FEI president Princess Haya in the wake of growing demands from European equestrian federations to address the high incidence of doping and equine injuries in Middle East endurance.

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