Oireachtas Joint and Select Committees

Wednesday, 29 November 2023

Joint Oireachtas Committee on Agriculture, Food and the Marine

Governance Issues: Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (Resumed)

Dr. Lynn Hillyer:

Yes, I would say so, off the top of my head. We are trying to make sure we get to every racetrack and type of meeting. We plan to attend big meetings, small meetings, large fields and small fields. The important bit is that what we do is analyse the results we get from those screening results and we use that to further direct where we go next. If we see a pattern of results from a certain yard, trainer or even a type of horse, we will then home in on that type of horse to do further sampling. We do not just put the results in a drawer. We use them to inform our further strategy on how we take tests going forward. It could be anything from a pre-race sample through to going out to the yard and taking out-of-competition samples.