KEY POINTS:
Champion jockey Michael Walker is facing criminal charges after a late-night incident in Palmerston North.
Walker, 22, has pleaded not guilty to refusing a police request for a blood sample. The request was made after Walker failed a breath screening test in the central city late on November 11. The case will be heard in May.
Walker has been in the news, not always for positive reasons, since he became New Zealand's top jockey at the age of 16.
In June 2005, he crashed his car at 4am in New Plymouth.
Later that year, he admitted in a television interview to regularly using cocaine in Australia, and using drugs and drinking alcohol at school.
Last September, he was accused of raping a Napier woman after a drinking session with friends in Havelock North. The woman was later charged with making a false complaint.
Fin Powrie, general manager for integrity at NZ Thoroughbred Racing, the governing body that licenses jockeys, trainers and apprentices, was not aware of the latest incident.
"Racecourse inspectors will be monitoring the process and the outcome," he said. "If there was a conviction, we would ... consider the issue and then give a report to the New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing Board."
The board could fine, suspend or disqualify Walker.
It could also refer the matter to the Judicial Control Authority.
- NZPA
