It only took two and a half years for her drawn out inquiry into Black Edition's two positive swabs for the presence of levamisole to be concluded. She has been DQ'd for 6 months. The decision makes interesting, and alarming, reading.
https://www.harness.org.au/media-roo...?news_id=60925
Note the horse's previous NZ trainer Ken Barron admitted to administering a product called Matrix-C to the horse on 20 November 2020, a week before being cleared to NSW. This is an oral drench register in NZ and elsewhere
for use with cattle only. On dairy cattle, it has a withholding period of 35 days on milk intended for human consumption. For meat, the WHP is 14 days.
The 3 active ingredients in Matrix-C are:
- abamectin, a macrocyclic lactone similar to Ivomec and other worm drench pastes used to worm horses;
- oxfendazole, a "white" drench that nowadays is used in rotation with mectins to clean out residual worms; and
- levamisole, which is a prohibited substance for horses. Calling your horse a cow, sheep or goat makes no difference.
The first two ingredients in their various forms and products are registered products, sometime as a combination, in horses. Levmisole is a prohibited substance according to the rule of racing and veterinary medicines registration authorities in Australasia. Here is the the product sheet:
https://parasitipedia.net/index.php?...27&Itemid=4857
Which begs the questions - what is HRNZ going to do about Ken Barron's admission? What is a professional horse trainer doing administering a cattle-only drench to a horse? And a 3-way drench designed to treat cattle with a heavy worm burden, something you are unlikely to find in the lush pastures around West Melton (Canterbury NZ, not to be confused with the dry pastures of Mellton West just past Tabcorp Park).
Barron's admission does not wash for mine.