Meanwhile, up at Wodonga Magistrates' Court today............
https://www.news.com.au/sport/superr...a66e36da65cd26
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Meanwhile, up at Wodonga Magistrates' Court today............
https://www.news.com.au/sport/superr...a66e36da65cd26
Nathan Jack again (& David Aiken) - from April 7 - it sure does take a long time to resolve things in Vic
http://www.harness.org.au/NEWS/news2...%20Release.pdf
Wonder why I get the feeling only one of them will be paying their fines to HRV......
There's been a slew of arsenic positives in WA the last couple weeks. Isn't it about time trainers found an alternate solution to pine posts?
KTQ I think we all know that the pine posts have very little to do with the positives !
Precisely. At what point do the stewards say from X date, pine posts will no longer be considered an excuse for a high arsenic reading.
I fear the burden of proof is on the 'accuser' and while treated pine posts are legal it would be up to the stewards/authorities to prove the arsenic was the result of something else
Nonsense Kev, the authorities ( in harness racing) do not have to prove the arsenic is from something else, they can convict and punish trainers solely on the basis that the sample has returned a reading over the threshold. At present though the authorities are acknowledging that the keeping of horses on rural properties where they have access to treated pine posts is a significant contributor to the number of positives for arsenic, and acting accordingly. But changes do need to be made, the threshold raised if determined appropriate and a line drawn for when pine posts are no longer considered an acceptable excuse or are no longer part of the problem.
Katie I thought you would have appreciated the cost of safe fencing for horses and that pine posts have been a ubiquitous part of rural fencing for horses for decades now, and it's not necessarily an easy or inexpensive task to change large amounts of fencing. That said there are apparently plastic sleeves available for pine posts at around $8 a sleeve I'm told. Perhaps where trainers have significant numbers of pine posts on their property rather then fining them the authorities should direct that the money be spent on altering the fencing to prevent access and receipts and other evidence of doing so be provided to authorites.
Rick I for one don't know that the pine posts have nothing to do with the positives. I'd be very interested to hear where you think, or should I say know they are coming from? I have it on good authority that the WA authorities can distinguish between arsenic originating from fence posts and arsenic from other sources. RWWA appears to be leading the push to lift the threshold, do you all think they would be doing that if they had prima facie evidence of wrong doing on the part of their participants with positive swabs?
Certainly updating fencing is no cheap undertaking. Perhaps RWWA could redirect a portion of fines revenue towards a fund to wrap posts on trainer properties that have a high number of pine posts. There are not that many trainers in WA at least and there are hundreds of dollars of revenue in fines generated each week that would easily cover this over the course of a season or two.