THE SUNSHINE COAST NEWSPAPER COLUMN - ANOTHER CASE OF ONE STEP FORWARD, TWO STEPS BACK

By Graham Potter | Sunday, August 9, 2015

Graham Potter writes a weekly column for the Sunshine Coast daily. Due to demand from those having trouble accessing the paper these columns are now also published on HRO courtesy of the Sunshine Coast daily.

“Houston, we’ve had a problem.”

These words originally spoken by astronaut Jack Swigert shortly after the moon bound Apollo 13 mission had experienced a system failure which crippled the craft and necessitated its immediate ‘close-call’ return trip to earth ... have echoed through time, warping into the more commonly used, ‘Houston, we’ve got a problem.’

The phrase is even often used in comedic fashion to report a drama but there was no laughter when that distress signal went out from Racing Queensland (RQ) on Thursday.

In short, as per their press release, Racing Queensland advised that it had, ‘conceded the appeals of three harness trainers charged with presenting horses with excessive levels of cobalt chloride.’

The release added, ‘it was important to note, that each of the samples was well in excess of the 200mg/L threshold and the accuracy of the positive samples was not in question,’ ... but, ‘there is an issue pertaining to an administrative error relating to the certification of the laboratories for the specific purposes of the Racing Act 2002 framework.’

That was RQ admitting that ‘a procedural error of law had occurred.’

Translated into plain language, it all referred to the fact that the laboratory used to analyse the samples which came back as positives was not sanctioned to do so under the thirteen year old current Racing Act of 2002.

It didn’t matter that the laboratory was ‘NATA certified and qualified to conduct such testing and confirmatory analysis.’ Nor did it matter that ‘the accuracy of the positive samples was not in question.’

An important technicality breach had been exposed by the lawyers of the three harness trainers who had been charged and that was that.

Case conceded. Verdict thrown out on appeal!

***************************************************************************************************

That decision is also set to impact on the status of two racehorse trainers recently found guilty of the same charge who received lengthy suspensions.

Same laboratory would equal the same result.

Adding insult to injury from RQ’s point of view is that, on top of the overturning of the convictions, costs would have to be refunded to the appellants.

In an interesting twist Alan Macsporran, QC, the man whose commission recommendations, following the inquiry into Greyhound Racing, led to the sacking of the entire RQ board, this time represented RQ at the appeal hearing ... to no avail.

And RQ’s comment that, ‘this outcome does not impact any future samples in Queensland’ was probably better left unsaid. Talk about locking the stable door ...

Bottom line ... this has been a very costly exercise in terms of wasting time, money and manpower ... not to mention the embarrassment caused!

***************************************************************************************************

But wait ... there’s more.

As a consequence of this procedural failure, the Racing Minister has, ‘instructed his department and Racing Queensland to engage Deloitte to conduct a comprehensive audit of all handling procedures of the Racing Science Centre, the Office of Racing Regulation and Racing Queensland.’

At whose cost?

Remember, the Racing Science Centre itself will soon have to report to the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission which will be formed shortly ... the estimated cost of which has already been the target of much conjecture.

And there I was thinking that Racing Queensland doesn’t have any spare money.

Looks like just another case of one step forward, two steps back!

More articles