Camera sting caught trainer
Details of a secret sting that caught disgraced harness racing trainer Jesse Alford injecting two horses with a prohibited substance have emerged at a hearing where integrity officials called for him to be banned from the sport for nine years.
Alford appeared at a penalty hearing before the Judicial Control Authority at Addington Raceway yesterday, after pleading guilty to two charges of administering a prohibited substance on race day, and one charge of attempting to administer a prohibited substance.
At the hearing, it was revealed that Racing Integrity Unit (RIU) investigators planted a hidden camera near the Woodend Beach stables the 30-year-old shared, after receiving a tip that he was doping horses.
On February 25, they caught him red-handed as he injected two horses, Johnny Nevits and Jimmy Cannon, with a substance, and attempted to tube one of them, two hours before they were due to race at the NZ Metropolitan Trotting Club meet at Addington Raceway.
Tubing is an illegal process that allows a chemical solution to be administered to a horse to improve its stamina.
The hidden camera footage was among evidence presented at yesterday’s hearing.
According to the summary of facts, Alford injected Jimmy Cannon in the neck using a syringe filled with 10 millilitres of formalin, which contains about 10 per cent formaldehyde, while another person, whose name is suppressed, held the horse by its head collar.
The administering of formalin is banned, as it can affect a horse’s cardiovascular system.
Alford then tried to tube Johnny Nevits using a mixture of bicarbonate of soda and water – commonly known in the industry as a milkshake. However, the procedure was abandoned after the horse became ‘‘fractious’’ and the person assisting Alford said they didn’t feel comfortable.
Alford then injected Johnny Nevits with formalin.
Moments later, RIU investigators raided the property. They found a plastic bucket of tubing gear, including a rubber hose and a plastic funnel, several empty syringes in a wheelie bin, a third syringe loaded with formalin, and a two-litre plastic container half-filled with the substance.
All three horses were scratched from racing that day and taken away for blood testing.
Betting records showed that several unusual bets had been placed on Johnny Nevits and Motor Mouth, another horse trained by Alford, the day before the race.
Alford asked the investigators: ‘‘What made you guys come out here today? Was it the betting? . . . It must have been the betting.’’
In a statement, Alford admitted injecting Jimmy Cannon with a ‘‘bleeder shot’’ and attempting to tube Johnny Nevits. He initially denied injecting Johnny Nevits, but later came clean.
In submissions to yesterday’s hearing, the RIU said there were several aggravating features to Alford’s offending, including the type of substance used, and the serious impact it could have had on the horses’ health.
The RIU said it believed Alford would likely have administered a substance to Motor Mouth if RIU investigators had not arrived when they did.
The impact of Alford’s offending on the industry’s reputation was ‘‘significant’’, it said, and there had been ‘‘intense media scrutiny’’.
RIU counsel Michael Hodge said the offending was at the ‘‘top end’’.
‘‘[It] conforms to the very worst stereotypes . . . against the industry – that it’s rigged and trainers cheat, that it’s harmful to the welfare of animals.’’
Alford should be banned from the sport for up to nine years, Hodge said. That penalty factored in a 25 per cent reduction for the trainer’s early guilty plea.
Alford’s lawyer, Kerry Cook, asked for a disqualification of four years.
Alford briefly addressed the committee, saying he was ‘‘very remorseful’’, and that the disqualification would have a ‘‘massive impact’’ on his life and his family.
Cook said Alford was entitled to credit for his guilty pleas, remorse, previous good record, the harm he would suffer and his previous good character.
The JCA reserved its decision.