Racing: Jodami's dope test for Chepstow flop proves negative

THE DOPE test carried out on the Gold Cup winner, Jodami, after his flop at Chepstow was negative, the Jockey Club announced yesterday.

Samples were taken from the chaser after he finished third behind Party Politics and Riverside Boy in the Rehearsal Chase at Chepstow on 4 December, a race for which he started at odds of 2-7. But neither the Horseracing Forensic Laboratory at Newmarket, nor Jodami's trainer, Peter Beaumont, who conducted his own tests, have established any obvious reasons for his failure.

Beaumont's son-in-law Patrick Farrell said: 'It is what we expected. The whole string was scoped and blood-tested which showed a bit of virus but Jodami's results were all right.

'He seems well in himself now but we will leave him until the New Year before we start preparing him for the Peter Marsh and (Leopardstown's) Hennessy Gold Cup.'