Long live the Leger.”Millenary, a son of Rainbow Quest owned and bred by the Welsh-born, Washington State-based businessman Neil Jones, will stay in training next season and may drop back to middle distances. His son Matthew, representing him here, said: “He wanted to call the horse Millennium to celebrate the year, but the name was copyrighted. So we called him Millenary, a 1,000th anniversary, instead.”When Allabaculia won the first St Leger in 1776, it was the reign of George III, Wordsworth and Beethoven were both six years old and Jethro Tull was inventing seed drills. In 1971, with the mad king’s four-greats grand-daughter on the throne and the agricultural reformer a rock band, the European Pattern, the classification of élite races and the platform for the modern industry, was created.The magnitude of Giant’s Causeway’s achievement in adding yesterday’s contest to the St James Palace, Eclipse and Sussex Stakes and the York International can be gauged by the fact that only one horse, Mill Reef, has won six Group One races – the Derby, the Eclipse, the King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe, the Prix Ganay and the Coronation Cup – in a row, and it took him two seasons.But the only other horse to have won five in a season even non-consecutively at the top level in Europe has been Triptych, who took the Prix Ganay, Coronation Cup, York International, Irish Champion and Champion Stakes as a five-year-old in 1987. In her time she was known as the Iron Mare; it is fitting that Giant’s Causeway’s sobriquet is the Iron Horse.The chestnut, trained by Aidan O’Brien, showed all his trademark durability to see off a gallant try by Best Of The Bests to get past him in the straight and repel the late flash of Greek Dance, another second for Stoute and Lord Weinstock, by half a length.

Giant’s Causeway’s long-term target is the Breeders’ Cup Classic in Kentucky in November; before that he will have Mill Reef’s record in his sights in the Queen Elizabeth II Stakes at Ascot in 13 days’ time.. The Uzbekistan official detained at Sydney airport for allegedly carrying vials of Human Growth Hormone last week would be allowed to enter the UK without any hindrance under current legislation. The Uzbekistan official detained at Sydney airport for allegedly carrying vials of Human Growth Hormone last week would be allowed to enter the UK without any hindrance under current legislation.
Provided the carrier claims they are for his own use, the drugs would not fall under the provision of the Misuse of Drugs Act, which, according to one doping official in Britain, is being exposed as inadequate by the success of the Draconian anti-drug laws in Australia. If found guilty of importing a banned substance, the Uzbeki official could face a maximum sentence of five years in jail.With the Commonwealth Games in Manchester due to be the next anti-doping battleground in 2002, authorities in Britain will be propelled into the forefront of the fight against drugs in sport. But officials are concerned Britain will be regarded as a “soft” target for the cheats, with police and customs powerless to act under a government unwilling to bring legislation into line with other countries, notably France and Australia.The decision by the Chinese authorities to leave 27 athletes and 13 officials at home was widely interpreted as a direct response to the rigorous programme of testing set up by the Australian Sports Drug Agency, which includes the first effective test for EPO, a drug widely used by athletes in endurance sports. Senior figures here question whether Britain has shown anything like the same commitment to the anti-drug campaign, and even whether the newly developed test for EPO will be set up here in time for 2002.”We have to look at ourselves and our laws very closely, if only to demonstrate that our society cares about the way sport is being played,” said Michele Verroken, director of the ethics and anti-doping unit of UK Sport, responsible for the testing programme at the Commonwealth Games.

“For example, an official could arrive at the Games in Manchester carrying large quantities of steroids and if he simply says, ‘Yes, I’m a bodybuilder, yes, they are for my use,’ there is nothing we can do about it. In a recent survey, steroids came third in a list of drugs regularly offered in schools; young athletes do not have to look far. It’s a time-bomb waiting to go off.”Verroken has been impressed by the evidence of co-ordinated action in Australia between customs officials, police, politicians and sports authorities, and hopes the model might be followed here. Her fear is that Britain is very far from being able to muster similar forces, particularly when the sporting federations themselves cannot agree on a standard range of punishments for drug offences and recent investment on research into methods of drug detection has been minimal.”The Australians committed money to fund the EPO study and the French government helped to finance the blood-based EPO test developed by their scientists,” said Verroken.