Like the economists blamed by Bertie Ahern for talking down the economy in 2007, the backlash to horse trainer Jim Bolger calling out drug cheats as Irish racing’s number one problem was familiar and predictable. Chairman of representative body the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association (IRTA) Michael Halford told the Oireachtas Agriculture committee examining Bolger’s claims that the good name of the sport had been “maligned”. “In my position as chairman of the IRTA, I can honestly say that apart from a well-publicised recent claim imparted from one trainer, I have never received any reports on doping in Irish racing,” the…

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