Always back the horse named self-interest, son. It'll be the only one trying
Victorian trainer Paul Tonkin had the misfortune of one of his horses throwing a positive swab in NSW to the powerful painkiller Tapentadol. Tonkin – who is no relation to Clayon or Peter Tonkin: same name, different family – pleaded guilty to the charge, was a first time offender, and the positive was accepted to […]
Reports just in are that jockey Amy Graham has copped a 4 month holiday for conduct bringing racing into disrepute over the cocaine snorting video that recently came to light. We are told that apprentice Sophie Wilcox has been given a 3 month spell for lying to the Stewards over the matter/. Jockey Casey Waddell […]
What you see above is the trainer’s receipt for a swab sample taken from their horse at a NSW harness race meeting on the 22nd of May 2025. The usual practice in most States with swabs is that they are either personally delivered or couriered to the relevant testing laboratory after the conclusion of the […]
Remember the Gambler? Kenny Rogers? The glass pipe jockey who last year copped his fifth disqualification for throwing personal positive swabs, all bar one of them to meth or ice? You know Kenny, the big talker non-walker who made cowardly threats against our person after we wrote a story about him, then wouldn’t answer the […]
Trot trainer Anton Golino not that long ago relocated his training operation and his home from Victoria to NSW, presumably chasing the better prizemoney so he could attempt to make a decent living. Golino spent a lot of time, effort and money to do so. Unfortunately not that long after arriving in NSW one of […]
A trainer presenting a horse to race when not free of prohibited substances is what’s known as a strict liability offence. As far as guilt or innocence goes there is only the former if your horse throws a positive swab. Even if you can prove from the recordings made by your stable security cameras that […]
Until now it has been accepted by the Stewards, Appeals Panel and Tribunal that Levamisole is only detectable in a swab for less than a week. This elimination time for the drug is based on an otherwise unrecognized study of 3 horses conducted by the the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory in collaboration with HRNSW, which […]
How long has Harness Racing NSW suspected or known that the ‘safe’ horse wormer Fenbender 100 contains the prohibited substance Levamisole? We have received credible information suggesting that the product containing Levamisole tested by the ARFL lab was purchased from a certain Garrards store by a member of the HRNSW Integrity Team using a company […]
We have written numerous times about the spate of positive swabs to Levamisole that have been recorded in NSW in recent years, and have repeatedly raised the question of why the Hanging State appeared to be the only jurisdiction in which positives to the substance were being thrown. The news published yesterday that the commonly […]
30 October 2025 As a result of a HRNSW investigation, the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory (ARFL) have detected traces of Levamisole in a sample of Fenbender 100. An image of this product is provided for your information. Until further notice, as Levamisole is a prohibited substance, trainers are cautioned in relation to the use […]
