There are now fears ponies currently serving a Driving Horse and Pony Club (DHPC) imposed ban from harness racing at Vesey Street could possibly be "put down" by their owners, The Royal Gazette can reveal.

Earlier this week this newspaper revealed that three ponies and their drivers had received one-year bans after failing a random drug test.

Two ponies tested positive for caffine while a third was discovered to have phenylbutazone, commonly referred to as Bute, in its system.

It is also understood the owners of the ponies were fined and all the ponies they own prohibited from racing at the Devonshire race track for a year.

This in turn has reportedly led to banned pony owners having contemplated taking drastic action such as humanely destroying their animals – rather than covering high costs to maintain them during tough economic times.

Such is the level of concern over the current dilemma that it is understood a growing number of DHPC members have called for an urgent special meeting to be held so that they can address an issue they believe threatens the very survival of the sport domestically.

"It is a difficult thing to be paying for horses just to be sitting around and if I was in that position I too would be concerned by the fact I have a barn full of horses that cannot race.

"But these are the consequences the drivers knew before they got caught. All the drivers know what the penalty is before they get caught," DHPC president Nick DeCosta told The Gazette.

"As far as horses being destroyed is concerned, I think that's all up to the owner.

"Personally I wouldn't destroy a healthy horse, but obviously I cannot speak for anybody else."

DeCosta now remains hopeful that an alternative to destroying the banned ponies can be found.

"We will try and make it so that the welfare of the horses are not put at risk because there are other jobs these horses can do," he said.

"These horses can be very useful and do make for great pleasure.

"They are not just racing ponies and so they can get other jobs outside of racing.

"But this is a big concern to us all and will be taken into consideration when we meet next month because we don't want to see the welfare of ponies being put at risk. We may have to make adjustments to prevent something like this from happening."

DHPC members are scheduled to meet early next month to discuss a host of issues that include the resignations under controversial circumstances of top executives and allegations of mis-management that have also surfaced this season.

Earlier this week DeCosta vowed to crack down on would-be drug cheats in local harness racing in the wake of a doping scandal that has cast a dark cloud over the sport.

"We want our sport to be on a level playing field just like any other. We plan to continue drug testing in order to keep a drug-free policy and we will go from there," he declared.

According to the Inwood Stables owner, all harness drivers are subjected to random drug-testing by the Bermuda Equestrian Federation while the ponies themselves are tested at the behest of the DHPC

He added: "Just like other sports we get scrutinised before and after races and this only proves that the system we have in place works.

"And we will continue to insure everyone abides by the rules that are in place."

n The Royal Gazette wishes to clarify that the picture used in Tuesday's newspaper accompanying the story headlined "Drivers hoofed out" was a file photo used for illustration purposes only.

There was no intention or suggestion that the drivers, including Mark Richardson, or ponies shown were in any way connected with the story or were implicated in the ban on harness racing ponies.