Toowoomba trainer Mark Currie and his son Ben Currie have been found guilty by the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) of being in charge of a racehorse with a prohibited substance in its system.
It comes after their Eagle Farm Racecourse winner, End Assembly, returned a positive post-race sample for cocaine during December 2022.
Trainer Mark Currie was not physically present at the race and had left his son and foreman Ben Currie in charge of the horse.
They both pleaded not guilty at the QRIC inquiry and strenuously denied giving the horse cocaine.
"The last time I touched the horse it was clean," Ben Currie told the commission's stewards.
"Why would anyone in their right mind do that?"
The Curries instead suggested the horse had been tampered with after the race.
'I brought him in clean'
The gelding had given a clean blood sample an hour before the race at 3:30pm, but its post-race sample, collected at 5pm, tested positive for cocaine and its metabolites.
"I brought him in clean," Mark Currie told the inquiry.
Ben had argued that it must have originated while the horse was "not fully in his care" during the 90-minute window.
The Curries told stewards that 20 to 30 people had been in contact with the horse after its race-win and that the positive sample could reflect cocaine being a "common recreational substance".
"It's pretty common practice to give the horse a pat and take a photo with the horse," Ben said.
He also questioned why the positive sample could not be tested to show the concentration of cocaine present.
Two positive tests in past decade
QRIC's Racing Science Centre director Dr Shawn Stanley told the inquiry that the laboratory was only able to test for the presence of cocaine, not the amount.
"There is no quantitative method for testing cocaine in equine urine," he said.
He also told the inquiry that the Racing Science Centre tested about 15,000 samples a year, but there had only been two occasions in the past ten years where thoroughbred samples had tested positive for cocaine.
Senior steward Paul Zimmerman put to Ben Currie during the inquiry that both of those positive samples, from 2018 and 2019, were from horses he trained.
But Ben argued that his history, which he had denied in the past, was not relevant, given the inquiry was focused on his father.
He also told the inquiry he was not present at the racetrack on both historical occasions that positive samples were taken.
"It troubles me that two individual stewards have brought up my history," Ben said.
Mr Zimmerman replied that their "testing would show it's not a substance readily detected in horses".
Curries to appeal against outcome
Ben also told the inquiry the process was procedurally unfair and said he thought he was coming in to give evidence about his father.
He said he had been blindsided by the charge brought against him.
"I just don't understand why I get treated like that," Ben said.
"[This will have] a massive long-term effect for what I do personally."
The steward's inquiry adjourned on Thursday afternoon to consider penalties. The Curries told the inquiry they would appeal against the outcome.
Editor’s note (17/03/23): An earlier version of this story reported that the Curries owned the horse. The article has been corrected to clarify they were in charge of the horse.
