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Points that RWITC Stewards should ponder
News: By: Sharan Kumar
July 28 , 2014
   
   

In any sport, champions are well respected. Their presence greatly helps in building confidence of people especially in a field like horse racing where trust element is lacking. Unfortunately the authorities have rarely bothered to take care of those who are good advertisement to the sport. Instead, these successful people are often targeted unfairly. The champions have always been left to fight their battles alone, unaided by the authority.

Take the case of Pesi Shroff. The RWITC suspended him for nine months after one of his horses, Bullseye returned from Nanoli Stud Farm and was tested positive for Boldenone. The said horse had gone for spelling and was sampled on arrival even before the horse had migrated to the trainer’s stables.

The trainer and the owner of the stud farm have alleged sabotage to tarnish their fair image. The stud farm has stated that it took due care to ensure that the horse left the stud farm after a precautionary check for steroids and only after getting confirmatory report from a lab based in Hyderabad. This was because of fears of sabotage following similar such instances of the stud farm’s horses belonging to other trainers coming positive a couple of years back. The horse left the stud farm ''clean’’ but was found to contain the banned substance at RWITC.

 
   



The connections suspect that the horse must have been got at some stage between the time the horse was sampled at Nanoli Stud Farm privately and its arrival at RWTIC stables. The Stewards held the trainer guilty of vicarious responsibility even without waiting for the police to submit report about the complaint of sabotage filed by the trainer. The club suspended the trainer for nine months but the Appeal Board has referred the matter back to the Stewards to consider ''fresh’’ evidence. The Stewards are to deliberate the matter on Monday evening (July 28) and thus they have had time to re-think on their decision.

What is significant is that the trainer has not been charged or proved guilty. The trainer is facing a serious setback to his career with the threat of suspension hovering round his neck. Vicarious responsibility itself is debatable.

The RWITC Stewards need to consider the following points:

1. Vicarious responsibility comes only if the trainer has not taken due care of the horse under his charge. In this instance, the horse had not been in his stable for several months and had just arrived from Nanoli Stud Farm.

2. The trainer has alleged sabotage. Given the rivalry, jealousy and bitterness that exist in RWITC, such an allegation should not be ruled out without due investigation.

3. All the horses in the stables of Pesi Shroff were tested for the banned drug after Bullseye came positive and the fact that all of them came clean is a plus point in favour of the trainer.

4. The trainer’s clean record of racing his horses.

5. The trainer’s credibility among race goers.

6. The club cannot say that it has no responsibility for security and its breach by simply stating that it is for the professional to address the issue. The club should provide all assistance in arriving at the truth.

7. When there is intense scrutiny of horses by authorities especially those belonging to top trainers, nobody would risk using Boldenone whose withdrawal from the system is something nobody can accurately predict and hence anybody using the same is at grave risk.

8. A hugely successful trainer would avoid such a risk when he is getting the rewards of the trade without taking recourse to such methods.

9. The Stewards cannot dismiss conspiracy theory as mere conjecture unless a detailed probe gives its findings. The club should appoint a team of experts for this purpose. They need to follow due judicial process.

10. The assumption of Stewards that the trainer and owner of Nanoli Stud Farm have close relationship and hence the trainer is in the know of what is happening at the stud farm is an insinuation.

11. The trainer cannot be held responsible for what happens at the stud farm.

12. In the past instances of horses coming positive during training or on arrival from spelling, the trainers had only been fined and in the case of Pesi Shroff, he has been given stiff punishment.

13. The Turf Authorities of India has kept on hold the decision of suspending a trainer’s license for two years should his horse come positive for steroids during testing in training or post race. The BTC suspended trainer Lokanath for 30 days after his ward came from spelling and tested positive for steroid. The stud farm gave a letter stating that the horse had been treated with the said drug but the same was not intimated to the club by the trainer or the stud farm till the positive report came.

14. The disabilities imposed on the trainer that his wards would be subjected to periodic testing as if the trainer is a habitual offender could be considered as prejudice against the trainer.

15. The club made no efforts to order a detailed probe on its own to protect the integrity of the sport. It has glossed over the matter. There is urgent need to set up integrity committee on the lines of British Horse Racing Authority.

16. Recently several horses including the one belonging to the Queen of England came positive for morphine. The BHA is considering all evidence including scope of contamination so that justice is not compromised and nobody is vicitmised.

 
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