A bid to extend the suspension of a well-known horse trainer’s licence was knocked back at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal earlier this month.
Alison Chisholm’s licence was suspended for 12 months by the Harness Racing Victoria (HRV) disciplinary board in May after one of the horses she trained failed a drug test for cobalt after it won the tab.com.au Pace Final at Melton last year.
Chisholm pleaded guilty “to presenting a horse for a race not free of prohibited substances” before the disciplinary board.
A urine sample collected from the horse, Jimmy The Editor NZ, at Melton on April 16 last year revealed a cobalt concentration above the allowable threshold.
The horse was disqualified.
HRV stewards called for a review of the decision at VCAT earlier this month saying that the penalty was inadequate and that Chisholm’s suspension should be extended to 15 months – consistent with other cases involving cobalt.
Chisholm asked the tribunal to consider that she “did not deliberately or knowingly administer cobalt to the horse … that she had used a commercial product, Dynavyte, on the advice of a veterinarian, not realising it contained cobalt.”
VCAT member Elisabeth Wentworth ordered that the 12 month suspension and the disqualification of Jimmy The Editor NZ be upheld.
