Ruler of Dubai SHEIKH MOHAMMED said that the trainer at the center of a doping scandal "which blighted his Godolphin racing team will never work with his horses again," according to the BBC. Speaking for the first time about the steroids affair, Mohammed said that the truth "would emerge from an ongoing inquiry." Trainer MAHMOOD AL ZAROONI "was given an eight-year ban" in April for "administering banned anabolic steroids to racehorses at a stable in Newmarket." Mohammed: "I was shocked. I have many trainers and if one of them does the wrong things, you know -- they gave him eight years, and I gave him lifetime. Finished." Mohammed "gave a wide-ranging interview to the BBC at a Dubai desert location on a variety of subjects, from politics to business." He "was asked how horses could have been doped without his knowledge when he is famed for his attention to detail." Mohammed: "He doped them not for racing but for treatment for the long term and they would not come to see the races. Now Lord Stevens will find out the whole story and we will all know what happened" (BBC, 1/13).
