Trainer Suspended For Six Months

Press, Volume CIII, Issue 30562, 3 October 1964, Page 6

Trainer Suspended For Six Months

(New Zealand Press Association)

HAMILTON, Oct. 1. The Rotorua trainer, F. S. Workman, was suspended for six months up to and Including March 31, 1965, after being found guilty when he appeared before the Waikato District Committee in Hamilton today on a charge that he had not taken all proper precautions to prevent the administration of a drug or stimulant to the horse Countax. Mr E. G. Francis, owner of Countax, was acquitted on a charge solely relating to aiding and abetting Workman in respect of feeding the horse. The horse was disqualified from winning the President’s Handicap at Matamata on July 11, after which a positive swab was returned.

Mr S. G. Lockhart appeared for the racecourse Inspector, C. Dudley, who preferred the charges against the defendants, and Mr P. Harkness appeared for Mr Francis. Workman was represented by Mr J. Allen. Mr Dudley said Workman had been feeding a proprietary food to Countax and it was from this food that a postive to the drug theobromine had been obtained after the race at Matamata. Mr Dudley said Workman was quite frank during his interview and appeared surprised Countax had returned a positive. Workman said he had been feeding the particular food—a dairy ration—to Countax for a period of four months prior to returning a positive swab. Although he had received a copy of a circular and the Raeing Calendar warning trainers of the danger of using proprietary foods, he had not read the warnings contained in either. He said he had been aware that a positive had been returned from a dairy ration in the past, but other horses which he had fed dairy rations had not returned positives. Francis said he had taken the proprietary food from Rotorua to Maketu on Workman’s in-

structlons. He knew that Workman was feeding dairy rations to the horse, but he was not aware that the proprietary food could result in a positive return.