Club denies drug claims
Jockey Club officials yesterday categorically denied that the club has a rash of positive drug test returns, with executive director of racing Bill Nader dismissing the stories in circulation as 'bad rumours'.
Chief steward Jamie Stier was brief but to the point, saying 'there are definitely no positives. That's incorrect.' Nader said the 'bad rumours' had begun due to the club's discovery of a mislabeled shipment of feed supplement to which a number of winners from the January 24 and 28 meetings may have been exposed.
The club distributes two similar feed supplements called Hemopar from the same supplier: one without any herbal extract and which can be used freely at any time by trainers, and another containing a milk thistle herbal extract and which has a recommended withholding period of three days before racing. 'One stable worker noticed late this week that a batch of feed, supposedly without the extract, looked and smelt different from usual and notified the veterinary staff,' Nader said.
'It was tested and found to contain the herbal extract so it has been a case of the supplier not labelling the batch correctly. It was a bit of a scare but we believe there is only one shipment and we found it.'
The batch had arrived only fairly recently and the club is understood to have accelerated post-race testing for races conducted on January 24 and 28 - on horses which may have been exposed to the problem - and they were all reported 'clean' yesterday morning.
'There were no post-race positives amongst them. And if we believed that any horses racing at Sha Tin [today] might be affected, then we would have withdrawn them but that is not the case,' Stier added.
