New Zealand's Judicial Control Authority has issued a 10-year ban to harness racing trainer Phillip Burrows after he admitted to injecting a horse with 30 milliliters of vodka and to tubing it with a mixture of bicarbonate of soda, Epsom salts, brown sugar and water, reports the NZ Herald.
On Nov. 8, morning of the iconic Cup Day at Addington Raceway in Christchurch, Racing Integrity Board investigators conducted covert surveillance of Rakero Racing Stables. Burrows and Matthew Anderson, a former harness racing star who was at that time a prohibited person under the Racing Industry Act, were caught on video injecting Rakero Rebel, and shortly thereafter, tubing the horse with less than four hours before the race.
RIB investigators stopped Burrows before he left the property with the horse; Burrows admitted to injecting and tubing Rakero Rebel. The trainer then assisted in the investigation, showing investigators the tubing equipment and vodka.
The investigators scratched Rakero Rebel from the Group 1 race in which the 3-year-old filly had been entered, and told Burrows to take the horse to Addington Raceway for testing. The test results showed no prohibited substances.
“It's a Group 1 race and you just feel like you're behind the eight ball sometimes and you just want to do your best, get the best result you can for the owners,” Burrows later explained.
Read more at the NZ Herald.
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