Dunns’ appeal to be heard next week
Robert and John Dunn’s appeal against their $14,000 fine will be heard by the Judicial Control Authority next Monday.
The father and son were fined $7,000 apiece after four horses, starting in the names of both Robert Dunn and Craig and Aimee Edmonds, returned swabs with elevated caffeine levels.
John Dunn, as the person ultimately in charge of the horses at the two-day Nelson meeting last June, was deemed equally-culpable by the JCA in February.
The Dunns, who pled guilty to four charges of presenting a horse to race not free of a prohibited substance, lodged an appeal against the level of the line shortly after.
The Edmonds were not charged in the case.
Smith fined after trials misdemeanor
Rangiora horseman Gavin Smith has been fined $750 by the Judicial Control Authority after pleading guilty to a charge associated with contrary whip use.
Smith was charged with using a whip in a manner in contravention of the Use of the Whip Regulations made by the Board after he whipped a horse other than the one he was driving in a trial at Rangiora last Wednesday.
Smith, driving stable runner Bronx Village was observed on video to have leaned over and struck another of his stable’s runners, Reverse Psychology, at the 200-metre mark of the trial.
Reverse Psychology was being driven by his employee, Siv Diamant, and ended up running second in the trial.
The fine, handed down on Sunday, ended a costly weekend for Smith after he was suspended for three driving days at Alexandra Park on Friday night.
Driving the Robert Dunn-trained Sundees Son, Smith was found to have driven carelessly when steering his charge to the parked position just inside a lap out.
The mudguard on Sundees Son’s sulky contact the front leg of Puma Road, who galloped and caused a severe disruption to the running line.
Smith was suspended from driving at Oamaru this Sunday and next week’s Addington and Rangiora meetings.
Lee under the microscope
Southland horseman Gordon Lee has been charged with failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to finish in the best possible position after his drive behind a horse he co-trains, Magnate Mara, at Ascot Park on April 21.
Magnate Mara was nosed out of fourth money on the line by Nightmarch after leading in to the straight.
The case, brought by the Racing Integrity Unit, will be heard by the Judicial Control Authority next week.
Forbury Park GM dies
Rodney Moore, the General Manager of Dunedin’s Forbury Park Trotting Club, died on Saturday, aged 62.
It would have been two years next month since Moore took the reins at Forbury Park after previously working at Otago University and Wellington Cricket.
Moore, who was diagnosed with cancer last year, had been on a leave of absence for most of this year.
Under his watchful eye, the FPTC turned a profit in Moore’s first year at the helm after a huge deficit the year prior.
His funeral will be held on Friday in Dunedin.
- NZ Harness News
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