Owner Critical Of Drug Rules

Press, Volume CVI, Issue 31109, 12 July 1966, Page 4

Owner Critical Of Drug Rules

(New Zealand Press Association)

WANGANUI.

A new system of dealing with inquiries resulting from positive swab returns from racehorses has been advocated by a prominent owner-breeder, Mr D. J. Wilkie, of Whangaehu.

cal evidence and report to the administrative body probably would result in a great reduction in what seemed an embarrassing number of doping charges, said Mr Wilkie yesterday. He said that in England it was the practice for a panel of three, an analyst, a veterinarian and a pharmacologist, to report on each positive swab before any charge was laid. In cases where only minute traces of a drug were found it was usual to notify and warn the trainer concerned. Mr Wilkie said he was concerned that the New Zealand Rules of Racing could deprive an innocent person of his livelihood when he had been convicted of an offence far more technical than sinister.

Mr Wilkie, who bred and raced the 1961 Auckland Cup winner, Ruato, is critical of the administration of antidoping rules and suggests that New Zealand has much to learn from English procedure. The appointment of a panel of experts to evaluate techni-