Gator owner vows to take legal action

ALLIGATOR Blood’s owner is preparing to launch an extraordinary $6.2 million statement of claim in the Supreme Court for loss of a potential slot in the $15 million The Everest.

He says the action will be against Racing Queensland and other as yet unnamed racing bodies and officials in Queensland, in relation to Alligator Blood’s disqualification from winning the $1.16 million first prize in the Magic Millions 3YO Guineas on the Gold Coast in January

Allan Endresz says the decision to strip Alligator Blood of the race, over a prohibited substance positive with traces of altrenogest found in a postrace sample, cost Alligator Blood the TAB’s slot in the The Everest to be run at Randwick in Sydney in October.

In March, Endresz said the TAB pulled out of advanced negotiations for the star horse to run in the TAB’s slot.

The TAB later signed Nature Strip for its slot.

Endresz says his legal claim will not only include the claim for potential lost prizemoney in The Everest but also the lost Magic Millions first prizemoney and also unspecified reputational damage.

He said it could add up to “tens of millions of dollars”.

“We are in preparation ready to launch in the Supreme Court – we had been trying to get a slot with The Everest, the TAB had us as the first port of call for Alligator Blood,” Endresz told Racenet.

“The fact that we lost it, I believe, was directly related to the drug issue and now Nature Strip has got it.

“It all builds up for what my lawyers have been preparing, the consequence loss and potential economic loss.

“We are pursuing with a $6 million claim for what the potential would have been to win

The Everest, against Racing Queensland and potentially a number of bodies.

“My claim is not just overturning the (Magic Millions) disqualification, it’s about the flow-on consequences of the loss that have occurred which include reputational damage.

“It could be tens of millions of dollars of reputational loss, the more people say and write s*** about this horse.”

The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission has told Racing Queensland it was now free to pay out on the amended result of the Magic Millions, with Greg Hickman-trained Eleven Eleven the new winner.

QRIC confirmed no internal racing review had been lodged in relation to the disqualification finding.

“If they (QRIC and RQ) are stupid enough to create more mess, that’s their problem,” Endresz told Racenet.

“I put QRIC on notice way back about what we are doing and what’s going to happen.

“If they are impatient, that’s up to them.

“The moment that money leaves the (RQ) bank account and goes to the Eleven Eleven guys and gets them excited, they have then got another problem because they will have to recover it.”