Racing: Riders' union leader denies drug abuse is prevalent

Michael Caulfield, the secretary of the Jockeys' Association, leapt to the defence of his membership yesterday in the aftermath of Franny Norton's positive test for cocaine.

Confirmation of the test result comes three months after Dean Gallagher's 18-month suspension, also for using cocaine, while Philip Shea was the first British rider to test positive in July 2000.

Shea's claim that a drink had been spiked was ignored by the Jockey Club's disciplinary panel, who are also likely to be given an excuse by Norton, namely that the positive result was caused by herbal tea.

By the time his case is heard, probably sometime in March, there will have been plenty of speculation about the prevalence of drug use among riders. It is not rife according to Caulfield.

"The figures would tell you otherwise," he said yesterday. "There have been several thousand tests on jockeys and the strike-rate is incredibly low. So I wouldn't lose sleep over accusations like that.

"Today there are double the amount of tests there used to be and the jockeys are comfortable with the system. It is completely random testing. They [the testers] could have turned up at Lingfield today and, like an FA Cup draw, have picked names out of a hat."

At a meeting of the disciplinary panel next Thursday the leading trainer Jonjo O'Neill faces severe censure following the performance of Top Of The Left at Exeter last week.

The lightly-raced eight-year-old finished unplaced under conditional jockey Tom Siddall in the Sparkle Cleaning Services Novices' Hurdle. The local stewards took exception to Top Of The Left coming home 32 lengths behind 7-4 favourite Vanormix after appearing to be tenderly handled by Siddall in the home straight.

It was the gelding's first outing for 683 days and the stewards called in O'Neill's representative, Helen Donnelly, as well as Siddall, and after hearing their evidence found Siddall in breach of rule 158(i) which deals with schooling in public, and O'Neill in breach of rules 155(i) and 221b(i), also headed schooling in public. As it was the trainer's third offence in the last two years, the stewards decided to refer the matter to Portman Square.

The Jackdaws Castle trainer was found guilty last month of two similar offences on one day following the performances of Gala Performance and Madalyar at Haydock and Fakenham respectively, and now faces further punishment. The Fakenham offence prompted the highest race-day fine issued by local stewards at £3,400.

Another trainer in trouble is Kamil Mahdi, who is due to be sentenced at Mildenhall Magistrates Court today after admitting five counts of causing unnecessary suffering to racehorses. Mahdi, who no longer holds a licence, admitted the charges in a hearing at Bury St Edmunds Magistrates Court last month and was warned that he could face a jail sentence.

The charges relate to the treatment of Desert Warrior, Chillisima, Hamardeen, Awassi and Mount Holly, who were taken by the RSPCA after neighbours raised concerns over the welfare of the horses. An RSPCA vet examined the horses and concluded they were the victims of "wilful neglect" and recommended that one of the horses, Desert Warrior, was in such poor condition the only humane solution was to put him down.

The Jockey Club will now wait to see what sentence is passed on Mahdi before imposing any penalty of their own.