Driving Horse and Pony Club (DHPC) president, Nick DeCosta, has denied allegations suggesting banned ponies are still being allowed to compete in harness racing at Vesey Street.

Concerns arose following last Sunday's racing at the Devonshire race track when three ponies, known to reside at the stable of an owner whose ponies were recently banned for a year after failing a random drugs test, were permitted to compete.

But according to DHPC chief DeCosta, the trio were perfectly legal and as such did not breach any rules. And he also stressed that ponies boarded at any given stable could possibly have multiple owners, which proved to be the case last weekend at Vesey Street.

"Those ponies that raced last weekend belong to an owner who isn't banned and just because a pony may be from the same stable doesn't mean they have the same owner," DeCosta explained.

"For instance, I have a stable but don't own every pony in my stable. And we know who the owners of ponies are."

Earlier this week The Royal Gazette revealed that three harness racing ponies and their drivers had been banned for a year for failing a random drug test.

Two ponies tested positive for caffine while a third was found to have phenylbutazone, commonly referred to as Bute, in its system.

It is also understood the owners of the ponies were fined and all the ponies they own prohibited from racing at the Devonshire race track for a year.

In the wake of the doping scandal that has cast a dark cloud over the sport, DeCosta and his fellow executives plan to meet with members as early as next month to clear up any discrepancies relating to existing drug-testing policies that have recently come under close scrutiny.

"We will have a meeting at the end of the season when we will try and fine tune everything so that there are absolutely no cloudy areas," he added.

"We need to keep our drug testing policies up to date so that they work in the best interest of the sport."