Extortion plan sees 3-year ban for trainer
Racing Integrity Unit clears top Kiwi horse trainer targeted with drugs and doping blackmail threats. By Mat Kermeen.
ANEWZealand horse trainer who was the victim of a bizarre blackmail threat is making a fresh start in Singapore.
Donna Logan-Woods, one of the country’s most successful trainers, says she has already put an email extortion attempt, where she was targeted by a former employee, behind her.
The offender – former Ruakaka trainer Kim O’Riley – has been disqualified from thoroughbred racing for three years.
O’Riley sent a threatening email demanding a ‘‘substantial amount of money’’ from Logan-Woods in November 2017 or she would expose alleged wrongful and unlawful activities at LoganWoods’ stable.
In a puzzling twist, O’Riley’s email was addressed to New Zealand’s independent racing watchdog the Racing Integrity Unit (RIU), but soon became directed towards LoganWoods.
O’Riley’s allegations consisted of horses testing positive for prohibited substances, being injected with performance enhancers, stable staff being supplied with cannabis and having staff members fail drug tests.
RIU general manager Mike Godber said O’Riley’s allegations were investigated but nothing was found to support her claims.
The Judicial Control Authority (JCA) – an independent authority constituted under the Racing Act that works similar to a court – handed down the threeyear penalty for committing an act that was either fraudulent, corrupt or detrimental to the interests of racing last month.
Logan-Woods, who was formerly known as Donna Logan before marrying longtime partner Peter Woods in January, said she wants nothing further to do with O’Riley. She was training in partnership with Chris Gibbs at Ruakaka but has recently relocated to Singapore to start a separate operation.
‘‘Nothing has been found in relation to the operation of the Logan-Woods and Gibbs stable to demonstrate a breach of any of the Rules of Racing,’’ the JCA said.
Logan-Woods said she considered the email ‘‘was 100 per cent blackmail’’ and she wants nothing further to do with O’Riley.
‘‘I’ve definitely had no remorse or apology,’’ Logan-Woods said.
O’Riley has claimed she never meant to threaten or extort anybody but the situation got out of hand due to considerable stress, personal issues and frustration with her former employer.
She claims there was no monetary figure in the email because it was not a blackmail attempt.
‘‘I was never trying to extort money for my own personal gain, I just wanted answers,’’ she said.
The JCA disagreed.
‘‘The email made plain that if monies were paid to Ms O’Riley the alleged wrongful and unlawful activities would not be reported to the RIU.’’
O’Riley, who has since moved to Australia, said she deeply regrets the way she went about raising what she believes were genuine concerns. O’Riley said she believed Logan-Woods would have approached her to discuss the concerns rather than reporting it to the RIU.
Logan-Woods reported the email to the RIU to protect her reputation, animals and staff from the blackmail threat.
‘‘Having a clean record I certainly have nothing to hide so of course I went to the RIU,’’ Logan-Woods said.
O’Riley claims some of her concerns have come from talking to staff and former staff of the stable but Logan-Woods said that was simply untrue.
She questioned why O’Riley was so fixated on her stable drugging horses when they were continuously swabbed but not one positive result has been returned.
Three positive drug tests were returned by two staff members of the Logan-Woods and Gibbs stable but they were made public and dealt with by the RIU and JCA process.
The RIU summary of facts said Logan-Woods ‘‘maintains a strong anti-drug focus to the point of encouraging RIU to test her staff’’.