Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
Central Coast trackwork rider Gary Kramer has been suspended for 22 months after throwing a personal positive swab to banned illegal drugs after riding in trackwork at Port Macquarie in late September. The sentence may appear harsh, but its not given that this was the fifth time that Kramer has returned a positive to drugs. […]
Harness Racing New South Wales (HRNSW) Stewards commenced an Inquiry today in relation to reports from the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory (ARFL) that Levamisole was detected in the following samples: Pre-race blood sample taken from the horse SKINNYDIP NZ prior to race 4, the STEEL SUPPLIES PACE (2270 metres) conducted at Wagga on Friday 7 […]
Just when we’ve been giving the QRIC under Kim Kelly’s operational leadership a huge wrap for its hyper-charged new and improved swabbing regime in the South-East, along comes yesterday’s meeting at Cairns and blows the whole thing out of the water. I don’t know if the new supply of test kits got lost in the […]
Four-year-old Kiwi mare Xcite Me came to Australia a in July as a 13 start maiden, and didn’t look to be any world beater. She didn’t in her six starts for skilled Sydney trainer Paul Fitzpatrick either. He did get her to finally break her duck in weak race at Bathurst, but after that she […]
A few weeks back we wrote about how swabbing at QLD metropolitan race meetings has been vastly enhanced under the leadership of QRIC Deputy Commissioner Kim Kelly, who was perhaps Australia’s – if not the world’s – best Steward prior to taking up his new executive role. It’s pleasing to see that the swabbing at […]
One of the things we saw was when methamphetamine was found to be present in the dogs. It was called an accident by the industry when they came to select committee. I’ve reiterated that to industry again: that they actually should have said at the time, “No, that occurred and it wasn’t good enough and […]
Archie, An increased swabbing regime is wonderful as it gives the illusion of integrity. Something that has weighed on my mind for a long time though, particularly in the Gillard/Adams era; when was the last time a gallops horse rung the bell for bicarb from pre race swab? I’m tipping it has been years. It’s […]
A month ago there were only 8 horses pre-race swabbed at Eagle Farm on a 9-race Saturday metro card. Only the winners were post-race swabbed, a total of 17 swabs taken in all. It was appalling integrity management, something we had been critical of many times in our stories. The new Deputy in town agrees. Kim […]
Trainer Paul Tonkin must be the most hard done by man in harness racing. He has just been hit with an 18 month disqualification by Harness Racing NSW Stewards after one of his horses threw a positive swab to the potent painkiller Tapentadol, a drug that he takes himself under prescription to treat chronic pain […]
Victorian gallops trainer Kane Harris has been suspended for six months by the Victorian Racing Tribunal after one of his horses threw a positive swab to dexamethasone. In was Harris’s fifth positive in 8 years, three of them for the same drug. Dexamethasone is a corticosteroid used to treat inflammation and pain. It has serious […]
