Quote Originally Posted by triplev123 View Post
You know where the NZ/JCA precedent to this lies Tahn?
The one where G. Rogerson lost a Harness Jewels Final there a few years back. I can't remember the name of the horse nor the year but I am almost certain it also got a DMSO overage and duly lost the race.
Apparently upholding that ridiculous precedent with a similarly ridiculous finding is more important than a factual, level-headed assessment of the actual performance enhancing capabilities of the substance that is involved...with an outcome that is calibrated accordingly.
The fact that Rogerson and now Lance Justice have both lost major races as a result of DMSO positives whilst other trainers have simply been fined for substances that are actual/demonstrated/well & truly documented performance enhancers....well, it is nothing short of A-B-S-U-R-D.
If faced with something similar one would hope that the various regulatory persons here in Australia wouldn't make the same 'punishment not exactly befitting the crime' mistakes that the JCA does. The Law, in this instance, is most definitely an Ass.
There was also a case last season down my way whereby a horse was disqualified due to the trainer being allocated a box at a course where the local on-course trainer had been using DMSO. Subsequently the horse returned a positive. It was proved beyond doubt that the trainer had not broke any rules - however his horse was disqualified and he was fined. The most stupid ruling I had heard of until this one to Lance and SU.
I have kept out of the debate over this simply because it makes my blood boil. The head of the RIU has a ego as big as his head and other parts of his anatomy.