In every doping case there is a human story. In this case it was a fairytale. Denis Lynch arrived in Beijing with the best horse in the world. His partnership with Lantinus had changed his life. Only a couple of years ago Lynch was a dirt-tracker on the European showjumping circuit, turning a buck by improving young horses and selling them on for a profit. He was a small-print name in a sport where every successful rider needed a resourceful owner with an open wallet.

That’s where Thomas Straumann comes in. He is a Swiss millionaire with a passion for horses and not long after he met Lynch he became his patron. The horses that Straumann bought for Lynch made him a player at the top shows but Straumann’s dream was to have a horse for the Olympics. So, at the end of last year, he paid €1.5m for Lantinus. The horse’s talent was well known but nobody had unlocked all of his potential and it was clear that he could be a difficult ride. Lynch conquered that.

This year Lantinus and Lynch have been the star pair on the showjumping circuit. In mid-season a sheikh offered Straumann €5.5m for the horse but Straumann didn’t need the money and this horse wasn’t about profit. It was about the Olympics. That was the dream.

To engage with a doping story, though, you must bury names and faces, their trau-ma and their back story. When the samples arrive in the lab they are identified by nothing more than a code and that is the only way to view a case such as this: without sentiment or prejudice. Lynch was quick to assert his innocence and his story is perfectly plausible. But the only measure of Lynch’s story is whether it can stand up to serious doubt. For his claims to have any substance they must be tested.

When the FEI announced that four horses had tested positive for capsaicin they didn’t specify which purpose they believed the substance was being used. The distinction is crucial, however. If it was being applied to hypersensitise the shins of the horses so that they would jump more cleanly, then that amounts to cheating and each of the riders faces a suspension of up to two years.

If they believed it was being used as a pain-relieving measure then that is much less serious and the potential suspension is a year - or much less if the doping committee were satisfied that its illegal use had no performance-enhancing motive.

The difficulty is making that distinction. At their preliminary hearing in Hong Kong on Thursday it was indicated to the Irish delegation that the results of the urine sample could not determine whether the substance had been applied to the leg of a horse or to another part of its body. Lynch insists that he applied a product called Equi-Block to the back of his horse as a regular part of its warm-up routine and this is how the substance appeared in Lantinus’s sample; the presence of capsaicin in Equi-Block is quantified at 0.025%.

The concentration of the substance found in the urine samples is no aid to making this distinction. It is applied typically as a cream and whatever amounts are absorbed into the system through the horse’s skin don’t linger for very long.

Yet the FEI clearly targeted this substance for these Games and were extremely careful not to flag their intention. Four years ago they trained their sights on certain substances but they issued warnings. In 2004 their intelligence was that riders were using human psychotic drugs, unlicensed for use in horses, to calm what are known as “hot” horses. They quietly began testing for these substances in April 2004 and sent emails to all of the national federations alerting them to their concerns. Before the Athens Games started they issued a clear warning on the doping control pages of their website. In their trawl Waterford Crystal and Cian O’Connor were caught in the nets and stripped of the gold medal.

This time there were no warnings. Nobody was tipped off with a word in the ear. When the riders arrived in Hong Kong they were offered what is termed a postarrival elective test for their horses. No obligation. Lynch decided that Lantinus should have the test. The urine sample had to be submitted within 12 hours of the horse landing in Hong Kong and the team vet, Marcus Swail, waited seven hours before Lantinus issued a sample. The samples were screened for more than 60 substances but not capsaicin.

Evidently the FEI’s reasoning was twofold. They wanted to catch horses in competition and weren’t prepared to send up a flare with the postarrival elective test. They also believed that capsaicin was primarily being used on the circuit as a hypersensitising agent and not as a pain reliever. Their best chance of catching offenders was in competition on the day when, they believed, it would be applied to the horse’s shins. Only 20 showjumping horses were tested at these Olympics and four tested positive for this substance and this substance alone. By any criteria it is an extraordinary strike rate.

This issue has dogged showjumping for a long time. Hypersensitising is a formal term for what is known in Ireland and elsewhere in the equestrian world as “rapping”.

This refers to an illegal training practice where the horse’s shins are brought into contact with a pole or a stick as he’s jumping, to make him jump higher.

However, horses in competition are regularly checked for evidence of this. The shins of sport horses are a constant focus of scrutiny for possible wrongdoing. For years skin swabs used to be taken and that gave way to thermal photography which, for some reason, was absent from these Olympics.

More commonly riders are asked to submit their horse to a “boot check” after they leave the arena. The leather or plastic boots that protect their lower legs are removed by the horse’s groom and the steward examines the shins for any abnormalities or discolouration. He will also smell the boot for any chemical odour. After both of Lantinus’s qualifying rounds in Hong Kong he was subjected to a boot check and was passed by the steward.

If, as Lynch claims, he used Equi-Block on Lantinus’s back then he has paid a heavy price for a small offence. As a pain reliever Equi-Block has a very limited range. It is an over-the-counter product readily available without prescription in tack shops - roughly speaking, an equine version of Deep Heat. But if your horse has a serious pain or a niggly injury and you need him to compete, Equi-Block is not going to make much difference. Lynch says that he used it to warm his horse’s back and that would be a common application for the product.

Equi-Block is distributed by MiracleCorp of Dayton, Ohio and on Friday The New York Times tracked down a spokesman for a comment on Lynch’s situation. He was emphatic: “There should not have been a problem with it.”

On the front of the container it clearly states that Equi-Block contains capsaicin but not in a quantity that would incur a positive dope test. Should that not have made Lynch at least ask what this substance was and wonder if he should be concerned? Products similar to Equi-Block that don’t contain capsaicin are on the market and would have suited Lynch’s purpose just as well. In fairness, it is not clear if Lynch had spotted that notice on the Equi-Block container before Swail pointed it out to him.

It is believed that a test for capsaicin has been perfected only in the past two years and it is speculated that the equine lab in Hong Kong is the only place where screening for this substance can be successfully carried out. Lynch says he has been using this product on Lantinus for as long as the horse has been in his care and as a regular winner at the major shows this season the horse is very familiar to the testers. But the testers weren’t looking for capsaicin. They seem to have been saving that test for the Olympics.

All horses need medication from time to time for various injuries and many of those treatments would excite a positive drugs test if they appeared in a horse’s system during competition. To allow for that, riders have the facility to declare these medicines before competition as well as the condition for which the horse was being treated. If it all stacked up in the drugs test, no action would be taken. On Thursday the Irish delegation asked what the outcome would have been if Lynch had declared his use of Equi-Block before the competition started and they were told he would have been disqualified. End of story.

Analysis of the B sample began yesterday and a result is expected within 48 hours. For the Olympics the FEI have put an accelerated process in place and Lynch could have his case heard in the next week or 10 days. Lynch was happy to waive testing of the B sample and bring his hearing forward but that option wasn’t available.

He accepts that a banned substance was found in his horse and he says he knows how it got there. He knows that the FEI has a policy of strict liability where the presence of any undeclared banned substance must result in a punishment for the rider.

But Lynch insists that he wasn’t cheating. The FEI’s doping control committee will make a judgment by the end of September. Somehow they must decide whether Lynch applied Equi-Block to his horse’s legs or his horse’s back. Their verdict on his motive hangs entirely on that question.

Compound with two uses

Capsaicin is the compound that makes chilli peppers feel hot on the tongue, lips and skin. It is also an ingredient in painkilling drugs for humans. When applied to a horse’s legs it causes hypersensitivity, so if the horse hits a fence or pole when jumping it will increase the pain. This encourages the horse to lift its legs higher. Capsaicin is also known as the equine Deep Heat and is used for pain relief.

Although banned by the FEI, only in the past two years has equipment become sophisticated enough to detect it. Riders and team managers were all warned that the Hong Kong Jockey Club’s laboratory, which tested the samples, had the most up-to-date and efficient facilities in the world.

What happens now The B-samples will be analysed shortly. If the result is positive, evidence and written submissions will be requested from the rider and a three-member FEI panel will be appointed. This panel should quickly decide on sanctions and hold a hearing as necessary.