Massive fine for Macau's Moore

Leading Macau trainer Gary Moore has been fined HK$500,000 - a sum believed to equal the world record - for a positive drug test returned by one of his horses, but will be allowed to continue his fight for the championship.

Moore, seven times champion Hong Kong jockey and a multiple championship-winning trainer in Macau, sent out Francis to finish runner-up in the Listed Lisboa Challenge in April, after which the horse returned a positive to atenolol.

The monetary component of the fine equals the HK$500,000 fine handed out by the Macau Jockey Club in 2009 to Stephen Leung Sik-lun, who had seven positive drug tests, although Leung was also disqualified for two years.

'Normally, in past cases in Macau, trainers with a positive drug test have been fined as well as suspended or disqualified,' said the Macau Jockey Club director of racing, Michael Beattie.

'However, Gary Moore put to us a significant plea to consider a fine only, rather than action against his licence, as he is involved in a tight race to retain his trainers' championship. So the fine today is a calculation based on the fine plus ban which would usually have been the case and we felt there should be a premium on it as it occurred in a black type [listed] race.'

Atenolol is a drug used in humans for the treatment of hypertension by slowing the heart.

It does not appear by name on the list of banned substances but comes under the general heading of a beta blocker drug, and all such drugs are prohibited.