Tomas Malmqvist was one of the country’s most successful trotting trainers last year.
Malmqvist, which has most of its operations in France, and a branch at Jägersro outside Malmö, brought in a whopping SEK 33 million.
Thus, the 55-year-old’s stable was Sweden’s third winningest stable behind Johan Untersteiner and Daniel Redén.
2024 has also started well for Malmqvist, who lives in Mortrée, a small municipality in the department of Orne in the region of Normandy in northwestern France.
He is again at the top as one of the country’s most profitable trainers with almost six million driven in during the first four months of the race.
But now Tomas Malmqvist has to wait for the next victory.
The star trainer is suspended by Swedish Trotting.
ST believes that Malmqvist has broken the regulations and revoked his license.
In short, it is about the horse Mack Love receiving medical treatment from a veterinarian in a stable in Jägersro without the horse being removed from the qualification for the King’s Cup.
– The horse was sick, he was stressed and showed that everything was not right, so a vet was called in, says Tomas Malmqvist. The horse was so bad that the vet decided to start treating it right away.
Tomas Malmqvist was in France when his horse was treated.
– I did not know that the horse had received treatment and therefore did not have time to remove him from the race in Åby, says Malmqvist.
– It feels nothing further, but I am completely confident that I have not done anything wrong and welcome ST’s investigation into the matter, says the coach further.
“It was not an emergency situation”
Mattias Falkbåge works as head of investigations at Svensk Travsport.
He says that ST made the assessment that there was time for Malmqvist to stroke the horse Mack Love before the treatment was started.
– Tomas had contact with both us at the association and the current track earlier in the day without saying anything about the horse needing supervision, says Mattias Falkbåge.
Malmqvist claims that it was an emergency situation. What do you say about that?
– It was not a question of any emergency situation where the horse needed emergency care. In such cases, horse welfare always comes first, but that was not the case in this case. We took a district veterinarian there to examine the horse on the spot. The vet found that Mack Love was fever-free and had normal breathing and pulse, says Mattias Falkbåge.
Tomas Malmqvist has been suspended by ST since last week.
– We have a few final talks left and, in parallel, we are summarizing the case based on the investigative talks that have been carried out, says Mattias Falkbåge.
Tomas Malmqvist has previously been convicted of other crimes.
In December 2021 he was fined €6,500 after six of his horses started within the grace period in France.
Has been convicted before: “To be taken into account”
In November 2022, ST carried out an unannounced visit to Malmqvist.
In connection with the check in the premises of the stable, four bottles of French blister of the brand Baume Caustique, a bottle of cedar oil and drip equipment were found.
The facts are that according to the A-list section 4.5 ef) in the Withdrawal and prohibition list, both cedar oil and blisters are prohibited substances and thus prohibited to possess.
During the investigation, Tomas Malmqvist told that he had no knowledge of the preparations and equipment found.
He was fined SEK 20,000 after violating the anti-doping regulations.
What does it mean that Tomas Malmqvist has been convicted before?
– We have a writing in our regulations regarding if a person has previously been convicted of an intentional violation, then this must be taken into account in a stricter direction when imposing a penalty. It will be something for our federal lawyer to look at which previous judgments exist and then it is a decision for STAD, says Falkbåge.
How common is it for horses to be treated without first being removed from a race?
– It is difficult to assess and have an opinion about. But I see some important angles on this.
Tell?
– If you as a trainer do not stroke a horse before a treatment and it was not an emergency situation from a horse welfare perspective, our starting point is that the trainer intended to start the horse despite a treatment, says Falkbåge.
ST’s head of investigations tells us that this rule about ironing before the horse is treated is absolutely crucial to their anti-doping work.
– Otherwise, the people with the intention of cheating could say that they intended to stroke the horse a little later and we would then not be able to act against them. Today, you can stroke the horse in several ways, for example digitally via the trotting sport’s website or via contact with the track, says Mattias Falkbåge.
