Elliott fined £1,000 and Zanahiyr disqualified from last year's Champion Hurdle

Gordon Elliott has been fined £1,000 after Zanahiyr tested positive for a banned substance following his third-place finish in last year's Champion Hurdle.

The six-year-old finished four and a half lengths behind Honeysuckle in the two-mile feature at the Cheltenham Festival, but has been disqualified after a post-race urine test was found to contain 3-hydroxylidocaine, a metabolite of the local anaesthetic lidocaine.

Elliott appeared before an independent disciplinary panel of the British Horseracing Authority in a remote hearing on Wednesday afternoon, with the BHA contending the Grand National-winning trainer had not taken reasonable precautions to prevent cross-contamination.

A BHA investigation, which included an unannounced visit to Elliott’s County Meath yard, failed to establish the source of the prohibited substance, with potential contamination at the Cullentra stable ruled out while none of the staff who travelled with the team’s horses to the Festival were taking any medication that would have explained the test.

Charlotte Davison, representing the BHA, argued Elliott’s culpability fell into the medium bracket of the penalty guidelines, rather than the low end of the scale, due to "significant failings" in taking precautions.

She said "The absence of any training or guidance that was given by Mr Elliott to members of staff about how to reduce the risk of cross-contamination if they were taking medication, the fact there doesn’t appear to have been any such training or guidance in place and that there appears to have been no procedures in place to, for example, allow for members taking relevant medication to notify Mr Elliott, and the fact there were simply no procedures or processes in place the BHA says does