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Ted Walsh has revealed that he was one of the two trainers in attendance at an equine therapist's clinic in Monasterevin, Kildare, last Tuesday when it was raided by officials from the Department of Agriculture.
Unauthorised medicines were seized from the therapist but there is no suggestion that Walsh nor the other trainer, who had brought horses to be treated, did anything wrong.
Speaking to RTÉ on Saturday, Walsh said he brought a young horse with tendon damage to get laser treatment by the therapist who makes regular visits to Ireland and is used by many trainers and sport horse owners.
"It's a bad old thing for racing. I’m sorry that someone as high profile as me in racing was even there," said Walsh. "To cast a shadow on the game. I can’t do anything about that now. I drove in, I was there.
"I rang the man in question a week or 10 days ago to ask the man when he was coming to Ireland again and he said he'll be there the next Tuesday, in the usual place.
"I drove down Tuesday. The horse had a slight tendon injury and he had done similar job on horses for me before, most notably Seabass, who was second in the National, who got a tear on a tendon. That normally means rest, a lot of rest, but if you want to get a horse back a bit quicker… this guy scanned it and lasered it and got him back in six months rather than 12 months."
Walsh said he was approached by local detective sergeant shortly after he drove into the yard.
"He said this place is under warrant and he explained to me that they had been notified there was contraband here and the Department of Agriculture are doing an inspection."
Some time later, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board's senior veterinary officer Lynn Hillyer arrived and had blood and hair samples taken from all the horses on-site.
Walsh said the same therapist treated his Grand National third Seabass twice in the past and that he believes the therapist is a reputable practitioner.
"I wouldn't have had a lot of contact but no one ever said to me, 'you’d want to be careful of him’. Usually in the game someone would. I never heard any bad words about him. He had a strong reputation with this."
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