Janiak pays a heavy toll for doping
Aussie trainer slapped with third-heaviest fine ever handed down by HK stewards
Australian trainer Joe Janiak yesterday counted the cost of his desperate last-ditch attempt at a US$1 million bonus in the Cathay Pacific Hong Kong Sprint when Jockey Club stewards handed him a HK$200,000 fine for Takeover Target's positive drug finding.
The fine is the third-largest ever handed down by Hong Kong stewards, behind only jockey Greg Childs' HK$300,000 fine for admitting to discussing tactics with a rival rider before the 2000 Hong Kong Mile and trainer Patrick Biancone's HK$250,000 penalty after 23 of his horses returned positives to a banned anti-congestant in 1996.
However, the total cost of Janiak's ill-fated trip will be considerably higher, with the trainer also required to refund the Jockey Club for transport and six weeks' worth of stabling for his sprinter.
The trainer has also forfeited the HK$120,000 declaration fee for the Hong Kong Sprint and the Jockey Club paid for Janiak's accommodation costs only during international week - as per all visiting trainers. The additional costs are estimated to exceed the fine.
The inquiry findings mark the lowest point in an otherwise intoxicating fairy tale of Janiak, the cab driver from country Australia living in a caravan, who bought Takeover Target for around HK$8,000 as an unsound, untried horse, then took him to the highest levels of the sport at Royal Ascot in England.
The sprinter had set himself up with wins in Australia and Japan to take the US$1 million bonus if he won a third Group One leg of the Global Sprint Challenge at Sha Tin on December 10.
The horse had tested positive to the steroid substance 17-alpha-hydroxyprogesterone hexanoate when he arrived in Hong Kong after winning in Japan in early October.
Janiak assured the Jockey Club that the substance, which he had used regularly to assist the horse through the rigours of travel, would clear from Takeover Target's system quickly. However, when the race drew near and Takeover Target was still showing positive, Janiak was informed that the club's laboratory officials believed he would be positive on race day.
The trainer refused to budge and, despite several more positive tests, paid up to run and stewards finally intervened once the sprinter again tested positive on race morning, using their powers to scratch Takeover Target less than three hours before race time.
At that point, Janiak had already contravened Rule 140(1) for his failure to ensure 'that any horse trained by him is free of any prohibited substance on the day on which it has been declared to race' and it was to a charge under that rule which Janiak pleaded not guilty yesterday.
Chairman of stewards Jamie Stier said Janiak's clean record as a trainer, without another drug charge in 34 years of holding a licence, was taken into account. However, they also considered that Janiak was 'aware of the presence of the prohibited substance in Takeover Target in the lead up to December 10, 2006, and that he had been advised the substance was 'highly unlikely' to clear the horse's system by raceday'.
The Jockey Club was yesterday advised the B-sample tests on Charming Speedy (cortico-steroid) and Elfhelm (anti-inflammatory) have returned positive from Australia. Trainers Francis Lui Kin-wai and Ricky Yiu Poon-fie, respectively, will be asked to attend inquiries into the positives on a date yet to be fixed.
