Equestrian: Todd says allegations no bar to Games preparation

Double Olympic equestrian gold medallist Mark Todd says claims that he used an illegal drug have not affected the preparation of his horses for the Olympic Games.

Todd said yesterday that his three potential Olympic horses were all fit and sound ahead of going into quarantine next week.

"It hasn't affected the horses at all - luckily they don't read newspapers," he said from his home in England. "It hasn't made any difference."

Todd declined to discuss the allegations, made by the Sunday Mirror newspaper in Britain last month, that he snorted cocaine and had unprotected gay sex. British police have said they will not investigate the claims.

Cocaine is on the International Olympic Committee's list of banned substances. Todd has never failed a drugs test in the sport.

He has continued to prepare his horses for Sydney despite the row, posting solid results in one-day events around England in recent weeks.

"It is not about winning the one-dayers, it's about giving the horses enough to tune them up for what they have to do," he said.

His horses and the rest of the England-based horses for the New Zealand eventing squad go into quarantine next week, and will be flown to Australia later next month.

Todd is expected to compete in both the four-rider team and as an individual at the Sydney Olympics in September.

He said his three horses, Diamond Hall Red, Eyespy II and Just A Mission, were working well.

He had not yet decided which two would travel to Sydney for the Games. "They're all really good horses. At this stage I have no preference," he said.

"I'd be happy to take any of them, or all of them. We'll be hopefully taking the two soundest and the two best."

Todd said he would ride the third horse at England's Burghley horse trials, which he has won five times, held just before the Olympics.

The aim was to have all the horses fully fit before the flight to Australia, so as little work as possible would be needed in Australia.

Asked whether he had been contacted by officials from the New Zealand Olympic Committee about the newspaper claims, Todd said he had nothing more to say.

NZOC general secretary Mike Hooper said that while the committee made inquiries about the issue no comment would be made.

He refused to say what inquiries were being made, or when he expected the issue to be resolved.

The New Zealand Equestrian Federation and Eventing New Zealand are supporting Todd's participation at the Games, saying they have no proof of illegal drug-taking.

NZEF chief executive Larry Graham said his organisation had no issue with Todd.

- NZPA