Former champion apprentice Jackie C. K. Tse has been suspended on the eve of tomorrow's big New Year's Day race meeting at Sha Tin because traces of a prohibited drug showed up in a random urine sample.
The shock news was released last night by the Jockey Club and means riding changes in four of tomorrow's 10 races, which will be announced today.
Tse is suspended from riding in races and trackwork until such time as the stipendiary stewards reconvene an inquiry into the positive sample and the racing chemist has completed his quantitative analysis.
For two seasons, jockeys have been randomly selected at race meetings to provide urine samples.
Tse has had an indifferent season with one winner from 60 rides. He was a brilliantly successful apprentice but never reached the same heights after losing his claim.
The sample was taken at the last race meeting before the pre-Christmas break on December 19 at Sha Tin.
