Sydney’s leading trainer Chris Waller will be free to saddle up his massive team of runners at Canterbury tonight and at Rosehill on Saturday after being fined $30,000 after Betcha Thinking returned a positive swab for methylamphetamine and its metabolites.
Trainer Chris Waller, above, has been fined $30,000 after his horse Betcha Thinking returned a positive swab. Photo by Daniel Costello.
Betcha Thinking returned the positive swab after running second in a 1550m three year old Maiden at Canterbury on October 5 and has subsequently been disqualified while Waller pleaded guilty to a charge of presenting a horse to race with a prohibitive substance in its system.
At no stage was it thought that Waller had treated Betcha Thinking with the drug known as ice and it is understand that the So You Think colt could had been contaminated by one of Waller’s large team of employees.
Waller has ten runners at Canterbury tonight and will have another busy day at Rosehill on Saturday with twelve horse due to race.
The premiership winning trainer said that he already has stringent guidelines in place at his Rosehill stables to combat the growing problem of drug use in society but will now put tighter measures in place.
“We do our best to provide a safe workplace and also ensure (we) stay within the rules of racing,” Waller told Racing New South Wales stewards at the inquiry.
“I fully support regular Racing NSW testing and I’m also stepping up internal testing to a higher level.”
“We (also) have a senior staff member walking around at 3.40am every morning to ensure all staff are fit and well and in a good state to be working.”
Waller said that Betcha Thinking’s level of contamination was at a low level and after he tested one hundred horses following the colts positive result to ice, no other horse had shown any irregularities in their results.
Chris Waller’s Canterbury runners tonight – Race 2 No. 1 Black On Gold, No. 6 Profusive. Race 3 No. 3 Bannatyne, No. 4 Via Napoli. Race 4 No. 2 Thurston, No. 6 Austin. Race 6 No. 1 El Novo, No. 6 No Return, No. 13 Prince Morpheus, No. 14 Estikhraaj.
Chris Waller’s Rosehill runners on Saturday – Race 2 No. 1 Zumbelina. Race 4 No. 9 Dagny, No. 12 Cry For Peace. Race 6 No. 1 The Rumour File, No. 2 Multifacets, No. 3 Montauk, No. 4 Trafalgar. Race 7 No. 6 All Cerise, No. 12 Wine Tales. Race 8 No. 6 Quick Defence, No. 11 Hogmanay. Race 9 No. 10 Sonic Swish.
