Owen Langley Escapes With A Fine Only For Hydrocortisone Positive
Greyhound Racing NSW Stewards today concluded inquiries into analysts' reports that the urine sample taken from Shady's Lesson after that greyhound won Race 9, the Medivet Bio-Bute Maiden Stake, 457 Metres, run at the meeting conducted by the Goulburn Greyhound Racing Club on Saturday 18 September 2010, contained the prohibited substance Hydrocortisone Hemisuccinate.
The inquiry opened on 17 November 2010 and was adjourned until 8 March 2011, before being further adjourned to yesterday.
During the course of the inquiry vials of the registered product Promote were analysed with one vial proving to contain an amount of hydrocortisone hemisuccinate and the other vial being free of the prohibited substance. The product had been used to treat a chest muscle injury to Shady's Lesson in the days prior to the race.
Mr Langley pleaded guilty to a charge under Greyhound Racing Rule 83 (2) (a) in that he presented Shady's Lesson for the race in question not free of a prohibited substance as the urine sample taken from the greyhound was found to contain Hydrocortisone Hemisuccinate.
After considering submissions on penalty Mr Langley was fined $2,000. In determining the penalty Stewards took into consideration Mr Langley's personal circumstances, the nature of the substance involved, previous penalties and circumstances relating to such substances, his particularly good record over a long period of involvement in the greyhound industry, his guilty plea and the fact that little support was indicated for Shady's Lesson.
Whilst Stewards did not make any conclusive finding regarding the introduction of the substance to the greyhound, they considered that the use of a poorly labelled product sourced from non veterinary or pharmaceutical suppliers to be an aggravating circumstance in consideration of any penalty.
Under Greyhound Racing Rule 83 (4) Shady's Lesson was disqualified from the race in question and placings amended accordingly.