One of Ireland’s top racing greyhounds, Clonbrien Hero, has tested positive for benzoylecgonine, the main metabolite of cocaine, according to a review by the Irish Greyhound Board. The board has opted to withhold some prize money and titles from the dog, which recently won €30,000 after a first-place finish at the Laurels final in July.
When asked how the wonderfully named hound ended up with drugs in its system, trainer Graham Holland offered the following explanation to the Times. Via the Washington Post:
You can pass traces of cocaine by handling money ... When a dog wins a race, people are walking up to the dog and patting it on the head. If they have cocaine on their hands, they can pass that to the dog and it can come out in a urine sample.
Holland would have been more convincing if he said that the dog went to the dog club and kissed a cocaine-using dog.