The BHA may face uncomfortable questions if the once-banned trainer tries to work again in Britain
Had things turned out differently for Mahmood al-Zarooni – had he not made what he described last week as his “big mistake” – he might well have woken up on Monday morning as one of the most famous and successful trainers in the business, with not one but two recent Derby winners at Godolphin’s stable near Newmarket.
Instead of fame and fortune, of course, Zarooni earned only notoriety as the trainer who masterminded the most extensive steroid-doping operation in
British turf history. And he left the sport in April 2013 with another unwanted record to his name, having been banned for eight years just three days after the British Horseracing Authority announced that 11 of 45 horses sampled at Moulton Paddocks earlier in the month had tested positive for steroids.