EAST Ilsley trainer Hughie Morrison is fighting to prove his innocence after being charged with breaching the rules of racing following a positive test on his horse, Our Little Sister, for the anabolic steroid nandrolone after a race at Wolverhampton in January.

Morrison, who could lose his licence for anything between a year and ten years if found guilty, fiercely denies any wrongdoing, to the extent he has offered a £10,000 reward for anyone that can help clear his name.

Our Little Sister finished last of eight runners in an extended two-mile handicap, in which she was sent off at 12-1.

The 56-year-old master of Summerdown Stables said that he had contacted Thames Valley Police and had also brought in a leading American expert in a bid to prove outside intervention.

However, it has been discovered that it couldn’t be a contamination issue with this particular drug, and the chance of the four-year-old filly producing it herself has also been all but ruled out.

The trainer also sent a B sample to Paris, but that too came back positive.

After being charged by the British Horseracing Authority last week, Morrison said: “Anything which you are accused of, when it is something which you are patently innocent, is extremely distressing.

“Obviously we sympathise with the BHA’s stance on it. That’s the rule, and as the responsible person I have to take responsibility, but when you are talking about penalties of being banned it’s very tough.

“We have been living with this for four or five months and it has really affected all of us in the yard, but the great thing is everybody has really put their head down and fought their way through it.

“Obviously the onus is on me to find myself innocent.”

Our Little Sister raced once more, when down the field at Southwell on January 26, and has since been retired.

Morrison’s yard was reported to have been raided at dawn on February 3, when blood samples taken from all 77 horses, including Our Little Sister, returned negative results.

He added: “Any trainer to give a horse an anabolic steroid when it is going to run three times in a month, or run at all, the odds are it is going to get tested. You are just committing professional suicide.

“No trainer is going to do that, and that’s why we have to look outward and offer a reward to try and find the person who has done it.

“I feel for my staff. Their lives are in the village and if I have my licence taken away that is their lives done.”

To add to the trainer’s troubles, head girl Barbara Dare was injured after being kicked by Top Beak in Newbury’s parade ring before the mile handicap on Saturday’s card. She was taken to Royal Berkshire Hospital in Reading with Morrison reporting on Sunday that she remained under observation with quite serious injuries.