KEY POINTS:
Top jockey Lisa Cropp yesterday emphatically denied taking methamphetamine but the prosecution suggested she intentionally took drugs to break the record of winning rides in a season.
Opening Cropp's defence, lawyer Antony Shaw said she denied having had anything to do with the drug, "refutes absolutely" the prosecution's assertion she deliberately tampered with the sample and that she took deliberate steps to avoid providing an adequate sample.
Cropp told racing's Judicial Control Authority committee that her first attempt that day to provide a sample was of insufficient quantity and was discarded, her second was marginally sufficient and was found to contain hair and straw, though they did not effect the test result.
Cropp, who has won three of the last four jockey premierships, faces a charge brought by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing that she rode on May 7, 2005, with methamphetamine in her system.
A urine sample she provided that day was found to contain the drug at 100 times the level that triggers a positive. Methamphetamine is a class A restricted drug that is banned in racing for reasons of safety rather than performance enhancement.
Cropp's defence comes 38 months after the prosecution case was outlined - the delay due to the jockey's unsuccessful appeals against the right of the committee to hear the case, and of racing authorities to require a sample from her.
She yesterday denied trying to defeat the test by providing a first attempt that was insufficient, and of putting her finger in the second sample to try to remove a hair, or of trying to contaminate the second sample with hair or straw.
Evidence has been given that the effects of methamphetamine include euphoria, increased energy and appetite suppression. The jockey agreed she was wasting for an upcoming lightweight ride and that in the season she returned the positive urine test she rode about 1200 horses at meetings.
Simon Moore, for NZTR, suggested Cropp tried to interfere with her sample because she knew it would show methamphetamine.
Cropp: "That is absolutely wrong."
Since returning the positive test, Cropp had been tested at least 11 times and was clear each time.
The committee and parties are to travel to Te Rapa Racecourse this morning to view the ambulance room in which Cropp's sample was taken.
