Rider, trainer fined over excessive force at barrier
TWO Cairns horse trainers were handed fines of $500 each at a Far North race meeting earlier this week.
According to the stewards’ report from Cairns Jockey Club’s 100 Club Raceday on Tuesday, stewards at the track inquired on the day into an incident that took place on January 18, when a horse was being educated at the barriers.
After hearing evidence from trainer and track rider Scott Cooper, trainer Rodney Miller and Cairns Jockey Club track and facilities manager Alister Glasser, it was established that Cooper and Miller were attempting to educate filly Kensington Lass with barrier practice as the filly proved difficult to load.
Both Cooper and Miller pleaded guilty to charges of improper conduct.
The report stated that Cooper used excessive force as the rider of the filly, and Miller allowed Cooper, the filly’s track rider, to use excessive force.
Both were fined $500 each and advised that such actions would not be condoned.
Earlier this month, Cairns trainer Trevor Rowe had charges issued against him for using a twitch device when saddling a runner at a racecourse.
The Australian Trainers’ Association this week vowed to fight the charges against the Cannon Park-based trainer.
Rowe was fined $400 and charged with animal cruelty, a tag the ATA says is grossly unfair given the widespread use of twitches throughout the horse industry.
“If stewards are wanting the twitch’s use to be removed from public view, that is a message that should be clearly conveyed to the industry,” the ATA’s Cameron Partington said. “Otherwise, as it’s clearly evidenced, the twitch is a very useful and widely used tool to the whole horse industry and should be not labelled in the ‘animal cruelty’ rulings.”