Robbie Byrnes warned off

[Triple V]

I was thinking more like Boldenone, arsenic, methamphetamines etc etc etc!
TC02 Is for the apes and all the smart trainers have a blocker for it

[VVV] A blocker for TC02 testing? Trooper, that's a complete flight of fancy. Impossible.
If you're going to take a swing at least do your homework first.

[Thevoiceofreason]

From the form student post above

"The whole industry is stuffed whilst ever there is a lack of transparency from the top to the bottom...............let me give you a few thoughts........on another thread, Karloo Kix, is allowed to race pending an enquiry, but mainly due to the time taken for the B sample to be tested overseas...........Do they think that because they fly it overseas it provides integrity, and a guilt edged decision.........not really.......why don't we get our own super duper testing equipment and speed up the process for instances like this when there is an urgent need for an answer, not just routine testing........"Get This One Done Quickly".....there is a flow on effect now that Karloo Kix is allowed to race...............all contributor's to this thread that have made comments about Boldenone have said that it remains in the horses system for months.......so if the horse tested positive previously, you would think it would be tested now prior to it being allowed to race.........there is no mention of it.......maybe Barry Lew has threatened HRNSW that they are depriving him of earning an income and "Lew will Sue" if not allowed to race...........if the horse now wins a race and is later found guilty of the original test..........some other poor owner will miss the opportunity to stand on the victory podium!........it is time for the racing minister to get off his arse and take control of this total mess!"

Confirmatory Analysis of any swab can only be completed by an independent recognized Racing Laboratory the decision by HRNSW to use Hong Kong on the important cases should be applauded, the HKJC laboratory is considered within the world wide community of Racing Labs as the world leader how any organisation can be criticized for using the best available is beyond my thinking.

I actually think if he was asked the racing minister would be very happy that HRNSW have taken such a professional approach.

In this case my understanding is that two horses tested positive to BOLDENONE on the same night at the same meeting, this after there have no BOLDENONE positives for years. These are circumstances that require proper investigation and that is what HRNSW are clearly doing.

The media release posted below from Feb 15th shows the report from the HKJC lab has already been received. The new testing is clearly in addition to that.


Positive swab for Barry Lew
Harness Racing NSW have received a report from the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory (ARFL) that boldenone, at a level greater than 15 micrograms per litre in urine, has been detected in a post race urine sample taken from KARLOO KIX following its win in the KOFM PACE (2030metres) run at Newcastle on 9 December 2011.
The “B” sample and the control were sent to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Laboratory (HKJC) for confirmation, and the HKJC has today confirm the presence of boldenone in the post race urine sample taken from KARLOO KIX on 9 December 2011.
Trainer Mr Barry Lew has been advised of these findings. An inquiry will be conducted at a time and date to be fixed.
Acting under the provisions of Australian Harness Racing Rule 183 (A), KARLOO KIX has been stood down until further notice.
Australian Harness Racing Rule 188A (2) (i) states:
(1) The following substances when present at or below the levels set out are expected from the provisions of sub rule 1:
(i) Boldenone in male horses other than geldings, (including both free boldenone and boldenone liberated from its conjugates) at a mass concentration of 15 micrograms per litre in urine.


So many people get on here and shout "HRNSW DO A BETTER JOB " and then when they try to improve what they do by using the industry best you bag them for it.

Talk about not being able to win, dammed if you do, dammed if you don't.

I would not want Sam or Reid's job for a million a year it would not be worth the angst.

[The Form Student]

As I said, we need faster turnaround times.........fix this problem!...........I am also not criticising what they have done........but we are all left in abeyance while this slow process drags on.........Why don't we have the equipment the HKJC has?............this is a multi billion dollar industry in Aust too! Get the TAB to spend some of the money they are not providing to harness racing from fixed price gambling for the integrity of the racing industry!.....

Let's make the TCO2 tolerance to ZERO for the time being, I also said they should go and buy some more freezers form Harvey Norman.......so they can stock up on swabs until they can process them!..........These would be some "positive" moves to prove they are serious in fixing things up...........You say you would not want Sam or the "Colonels" job for millions a year..............Well let them stand aside and get someone who is going to formulate a Plan for the industries future, but put things back on track immediately.............maybe it is time for a heavy handed approach to bring things back to order.............the other deficiency in their operation is they do not advise in full, the circumstance for decisions that are made............they don't advise upfront the concentration level of contaminants found in swabs, they only provide limited information, which makes you keep guessing...........I hope they read this, because they can continue to think they are doing the right thing, and that we only need to be fed a few scraps of info from time to time.............so be it!............if things continue as is............we will be tied up in knots with no direction for the next 10 years, and wonder why the sport has gone down the drain!

Now back to the Boldenone enquiry...........this was detected on 9th December, 2011.......................now 3 months since the incident!............the HKJC confrimed on 13th February 2012 that the "B" sample was also positive...............so what is being done since???????????
See stewards report below;

Harness Racing NSW have received a report from the Australian Racing Forensic Laboratory (ARFL) that boldenone, at a level greater than 15 micrograms per litre in urine, has been detected in a post race urine sample taken from MACH WIPER following its win in the NXFM Newcastle Cup (2550 metres) run at Newcastle on 9 December 2011.
The “B” sample and the control were sent to the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Laboratory (HKJC) for confirmation, and the HKJC has today confirm the presence of boldenone in the post race urine sample taken from MACH WIPER on 9 December 2011.Trainer Mr Luke McCarthy has been advised of these findings. An inquiry will be conducted at a time and date to be fixed.Acting under the provisions of Australian Harness Racing Rule 183 (A), MACH WIPER has been stood down until further notice.
Australian Harness Racing Rule 188A. (2) states:
The following substances when present at or below the levels set out are excepted from the provisions of subrule (1):
(i) Boldenone in male horses other than geldings, (including both free boldenone and boldenone liberated from its conjugates) at a mass concentration of 15 micrograms per litre in urine.

To be honest, there is no direction from HRNSW on anything........please give me a glimmer of hope!

[Thevoiceofreason]

Form Student

With the greatest of respect you are on the wrong boat here over a number of issues.

Swabbing positives with exception of TC02 take about 4 weeks to confirm no matter which lab in the world does it, so if you do the maths about 4 weeks for the Australian test from the date of the race allow some time to arrange transport another 4 weeks for the confirmatory from HK and we are at about the date HK confirmed so very much within the best time frame you could expect. Your wish for a faster turn around time is simply not viable with current technology.


In relation to the threshold level for TCO2 , as it is naturally occurring in every horse, a level that is over what may naturally occur has to be set, this level is constant across all racing countries and codes so firstly to be set at zero is not possible because no horse has zero in its system.

The current threshold has changed a couple of times over the years as more and more scientific data has become available the more tests that are done world wide each year continue to shed more light on the subject, however as I understand the accepted normal range in a horse has actually got higher caused in part by more and more horses being fed vet supplements that contain citrates that actually boost the TCO2 level, this is one of the issues that stops it being black and white.

The current level is set so that to achieve it, it is considered the horse has to have been drenched close to race time which in all codes is against the rules.

By way of comparison I have looked at the two most recent positive swab case conducted by Racing NSW stewards

Race Date 17 July 2011 Inquiry 7 October 2011
Race Date 25 July 2011 Inquiry 14 October 2011

It is about the same time frame as you can see.

[tiny]

For Karoo kick to be allowed to return to racing it must have returned a clean swab to get this approved. Other wise the horse can be presented at the races again to return a second positive and knowing what we know about boldenone it is highly likely to be the case.

I still think some type of horrible mistake has been made here.

[doesnotlikenarcs inc.]

Daryl, sorry Tiny, what do you base your assumption on? Do you understand the process, have you spoken to any offcialdom???You seem to know alot, I am presuming you are in the know...

[The Form Student]

Form Student

With the greatest of respect you are on the wrong boat here over a number of issues.

Swabbing positives with exception of TC02 take about 4 weeks to confirm no matter which lab in the world does it, so if you do the maths about 4 weeks for the Australian test from the date of the race allow some time to arrange transport another 4 weeks for the confirmatory from HK and we are at about the date HK confirmed so very much within the best time frame you could expect. Your wish for a faster turn around time is simply not viable with current technology.


In relation to the threshold level for TCO2 , as it is naturally occurring in every horse, a level that is over what may naturally occur has to be set, this level is constant across all racing countries and codes so firstly to be set at zero is not possible because no horse has zero in its system.

The current threshold has changed a couple of times over the years as more and more scientific data has become available the more tests that are done world wide each year continue to shed more light on the subject, however as I understand the accepted normal range in a horse has actually got higher caused in part by more and more horses being fed vet supplements that contain citrates that actually boost the TCO2 level, this is one of the issues that stops it being black and white.

The current level is set so that to achieve it, it is considered the horse has to have been drenched close to race time which in all codes is against the rules.

By way of comparison I have looked at the two most recent positive swab case conducted by Racing NSW stewards

Race Date 17 July 2011 Inquiry 7 October 2011
Race Date 25 July 2011 Inquiry 14 October 2011

It is about the same time frame as you can see.

Sorry, I meant to set the tolerance level to zero above the threshold and put all on notice their will be higher penalties from now on, including suspension plus fines......especially for repeat offenders!
HRNSW needs to provide more detail about the decisions it makes..........you really don't know what they are doing.........at least at the gallops the chief steward will get on the radio or Sky and explain the decisions.........I know Harness Racing doesn't have that kind of exposure, but they can at least decisions in more detail. The setewrds reports from the gallops are in the paper the next day...........stewards reports in NSW are much slower than in the other states going onto the AHR site, and can take several days!
They need a shake-up in all areas, what they have existed on doing as their routine in the past is over.........clean up all areas of your operation so that the public and participants have faith that HRNSW is a "world class" operation!!!!!!

[doesnotlikenarcs inc.]

http://www.trotstv.com.au/?id=3245

things like this you after TFS.....they said these are going to be more regular, they are on trotstv.com.au.....

[Thevoiceofreason]

Sorry, I meant to set the tolerance level to zero above the threshold and put all on notice their will be higher penalties from now on, including suspension plus fines......especially for repeat offenders!
HRNSW needs to provide more detail about the decisions it makes..........you really don't know what they are doing.........at least at the gallops the chief steward will get on the radio or Sky and explain the decisions.........I know Harness Racing doesn't have that kind of exposure, but they can at least decisions in more detail. The setewrds reports from the gallops are in the paper the next day...........stewards reports in NSW are much slower than in the other states going onto the AHR site, and can take several days!
They need a shake-up in all areas, what they have existed on doing as their routine in the past is over.........clean up all areas of your operation so that the public and participants have faith that HRNSW is a "world class" operation!!!!!!

The fact that TCO2 is naturally occurring is why it is set at its current level to lower it would be not be possible as you would be drifting into naturally occurring levels. and there is already zero tolerance above this level.

In relation to penalties the industry is in a way tied to what has already happened you can not just start giving people two years for something others get six months for you would lose on appeal as soon as the case opened, as in any law situation precedents are an important factor.

From reading the stewards reports on both codes they seem to provide about the same amount of information but I take your point about lack of exposure.

To be honest you need to feel for the Harness Stewards in relation to their day to day reports apart from the fact they are already massively understaffed at meetings their gallops counterparts have a shorthand writer to type the stewards reports at all major city and provincial meetings, most of the Harness stewards type their own the next day or sometimes the day after or the day after that, depending on where they last worked.

Let me provide an example from just last week

C Paul Chief Steward Bankstown
C Paul Chief Steward Bathurst
C Paul Chief Steward Penrith
C Paul Steward Menangle

Remember he has to travel to all these meetings and home, prepare for the next meeting, He is not the only one in this boat, I am just using this as an example.