RED-FACED PAYNE ADMITS SHE MADE A MISTAKE
MELBOURNE Cupwinning jockey Michelle Payne is sorry and embarrassed over the mistake that led to her fourweek suspension for taking a banned appetite suppressant.
Payne says she should have sought more details after her doctor prescribed Phentermine to help deal with gastrointestinal problems connected to injuries she sustained in a serious race fall.
CYCLING
The first female jockey to win the Melbourne Cup says she accepts full responsibility and regrets she did not handle the situation better.
“The onus is 100 per cent with me as a rider to know what I am taking and the rules around it regardless of whether it has been prescribed to me or not,” Payne said yesterday.
“I wasn’t thorough and that is completely my fault.”
Payne admitted taking the banned substance and said she was sorry and embarrassed.
“If I had known it would be still in my system and I would be riding with a banned substance in my system, I wouldn’t have been riding,” she told a Racing Victoria stewards inquiry.
Payne’s barrister Michael Rivette said the 31-year-old blamed no one but herself for the mistake.
“She’s extremely
ATHLETICS embarrassed and has shown genuine remorse for her mistake,” he said.
Inquiry chairman Robert Cram said Payne admitted she knew Phentermine was a banned substance under the racing rules.
Payne has been banned from riding in races for four weeks, until July 21. She was stood down on June 23, after the positive test from a urine sample taken at the Swan Hill Cup meeting on June 11.
RUGBY UNION