Trainer Ed Dunlop has been handed a suspended 12-month disqualification after one of his horses tested positive for cocaine at Brighton last year.

Lucidity, then a three-year-old filly, finished three-and-a-half lengths second at Brighton on July 4 last year before testing positive for a metabolite of cocaine. The source of the positive test remains unknown, although at the hearing one of Dunlop’s employees admitted using cocaine on two occasions while working at the yard. The British Horseracing Authority attached no blame to the trainer, who will introduce random drug testing among his staff.

The trainer’s solicitor, Rory Mac Neice, had argued during a two-hour hearing for a lesser penalty. He described the outcome as “clearly and obviously, utterly undeserved”.

“The rules have got to enable appropriate and fair disposal of cases and it seems to me these rules don’t,” Mac Neice told the Racing Post. “What this means is that somebody who has been a rule-taker for 30 years, who has an impeccable record, who clearly adds to the industry, far from being a threat to it, has a sword of Damocles hanging over his head for 12 months. What does that achieve?”

One of Dunlop’s employees admitted using cocaine on two occasions. One instance came months before the positive test and another happened afterwards.

In these cases the strict liability is on the trainer but Dunlop can continue to run his yard as normal as the disqualification is suspended. It will only be triggered if Dunlop is found in breach again during the next year.

In a 30-year career Dunlop’s horses had never previously returned a positive test in Britain. He has also trained two of the greatest middle distance fillies of the 21st century; Ouija Board and Snow Fairy. Indeed, the only blot on his copybook was when Snow Fairy was disqualified from a race in France after she tested positive for an anti-inflammatory medication on which he had been given the wrong advice about its withdrawal period.