A senior official in Irish show jumping said yesterday that all the Olympic shortlisted riders had declared that their horses were drug-free, less than a month before the Athens Games.
Speaking to The Irish Times last night, a source closely involved with the Irish team said: "I spoke to all the riders, warning them about the more advanced screening and they all said there was nothing to worry about, none of their horses were on any medication."
Phone-calls were made to all the shortlisted riders - following a memo sent out by the International Equestrian Federation (FEI) in July - warning against the use of previously undetectable sedatives, particularly those more normally used in the human field, which had been showing up in equine samples.
Although the memo did not appear on the FEI website until August 5th, it was sent to all national federations during the last week in July.
The Irish governing body forwarded it to all its affiliate members, including the Show Jumping Association of Ireland, and officials made the decision to contact the shortlisted riders to relay the warning.
The official was speaking on the eve of the B blood sample from Cian O'Connor's Olympic horse, Waterford Crystal, undergoing confirmatory analysis at the USA Equestrian Drug Testing and Research Laboratory in New York today. The lab director, Mr Chris Nattrass, will be carrying out the testing and the results are expected before the end of the week.
It is not yet known when the results will be made public, however. Dr Bo Helander, secretary general at the FEI and head of the Federation's legal department, is on holiday this week and will be at the World Cup qualifying round in Buenos Aires next weekend prior to a two-day top-level FEI meeting in the Argentinian capital.
Meanwhile, Cian O'Connor's woes continued when he was involved in a car crash on Saturday. Although there was some damage to his car, the 24-year-old rider escaped uninjured.
"I was on my way from the yard to my house and I went to pass out a tractor and trailer," he told The Irish Times last night, immediately after finishing third and fourth in the Gain Feeds Grand Prix at Kill International Equestrian Centre. The Kildare rider received an enthusiastic reception from a record crowd at the IJM Timberframe League round.
"The tractor suddenly turned sharp right," he said. "The indicators weren't working on the trailer and the wheel of the tractor hit my passenger door."
This is the second incident involving Cian O'Connor's car. It was stolen from outside his home in August.