Swab doubt strands Destreos on 99 wins
PREPARATIONS for what was to be a night of celebration at the Launceston Paceway on Sunday night have been halted with the news aged pacer Destreos has been stood down from racing by stewards pending an inquiry into a swab irregularity.
Destreos was expected to win his 100th race in Launceston on Sunday, with the club and most people involved in the industry preparing for what was going to be a special recognition ceremony to celebrate the horse’s milestone.
The Office of Racing Integrity made the announcement yesterday that cobalt above the prescribed threshold had been detected in a urine sample taken from the horse before he competed in a race in which he finished fourth at Carrick on December 31.
“We recently received the advice of the irregularity from Racing Analytical Services and the B sample has now been sent to the Racing Science Centre in Queensland for confirmation,” director of racing Reid Sanders said.
Destreos is trained by Ken Rattray and is owned by his partner, Sally Stingel, who are mystified by the findings.
“I just can’t believe it,” Rattray said.
“I haven’t changed anything, yet his cobalt readings, according to the test sample, have exceeded the threshold, yet I’ve done nothing out of the ordinary and he’s been swabbed numerous times after wins and out of racing and never had any abnormalities.”
The legal threshold in horses at test level is 200 micrograms per litre of urine but ORI has not revealed the level found in the sample taken from Destreos at Carrick.
The gelding did most of his racing in Queensland where he earned legend status winning 73 times at Albion Park, a record that might never be broken.
He amassed 96 wins in the Sunshine State and most believed it would only be a matter of time before he joined the great Paleface Adios and Queensland star of the 1980s Cane Smoke as the only pacers in the southern hemisphere to win 100 races or more.
Rattray and Stingel spent 20 years in Queensland but they packed up and moved back to Rattray’s home state of Tasmania last year and with them came Destreos, who is treated more like a family member than a racing animal.
As prominent harness racing pundit Chris Barsby wrote recently: “The 14-year-old gelding has endeared himself to fans around the globe owing to his relentless appetite for competition and never-say-die attitude.”
As the matter is under investigation, ORI cannot make any further comments and Rattray said he would wait until the appropriate time to go into any detail on the irregularity.