Bermuda Driving Horse and Pony Club president Nick DeCosta has confirmed that three of the club's members have been banned for doping offences.

DeCosta expressed his sadness at the situation, revealed by The Royal Gazette yesterday, but pointed out that it was the first time in two years of drug testing that a positive result had occured.

The DHPC president also insisted that he was determined that the sport remained drug-free and that everyone connected with harness racing, from himself down, would continue to be subjected to a rigorous drug-testing procedure.

"There were three horses that proved positive for the drugs, two for caffeine and one for Bute, which is a type of aspirin," he said. "It is understood that these ingredients were put in the feed, not injected.

"We have been testing for two years and this is the first time we have had tests come back positive. 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."

While the culprits have not yet been named, DeCosta said that their records for the season so far would be removed from the official standings.

"If a horse was a stakes horse then whatever standing they had will be revoked," he said. "Similarly, if they were involved in regular racing the same will happen, but they obviously have a lot less to lose."

Drivers are subjected to random drug-testing by the Bermuda Equestrian Federation, the umbrella body which regulates all equestrian sport on the Island, while the horses themselves are tested at the request of the DHPC.

"Just like other sports we get scrutinised before and after races," said DeCosta, "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 put in place.

"The vet can decide that on any given day, she can come down to the track and the names of all the horses go into a hat and are selected out," said De Costa.

"This goes for the president right down to drivers and ponies. It happens all over the world."

This season the horses' blood has been drawn by Dr. Lucy Wheeler of the Ettrick Animal Hospital in Warwick and the samples then sent to a laboratory in Canada for testing.

While there has been no evidence of steroid abuse in the sport, Dr. Wheeler said that both caffeine and phenylbutazone, or Bute as it is known, could both be considered to be performance enhancing drugs.

"So far eight horses have been tested in two rounds of testing and there have been three failures," Dr. Wheeler told The Gazette yesterday.

"Caffeine is a stimulant in horses just as it is in humans. The theory is that it makes horses run faster, and there have been studies to prove that is the case.

"It makes them perform better, so it is a performance enhancing drug.

"Phenylbutazone is more of an anti-inflamatory drug, a pain reliever.

"It's not officially a performance enhancing drug, but if a horse has some soreness, or stiffness, and that helps it to run normally, then it does effect the performance."