KEY POINTS:
Jockey Lisa Cropp took her fight against a positive drug test to the Court of Appeal in Wellington yesterday.
New Zealand's top jockey tested positive to methamphetamine in a urine sample taken in a routine random drugs test at a race meeting at Te Rapa, Hamilton, on May 7, 2005.
Cropp's case went to the High Court in Auckland last March where her lawyers argued the drug test was unlawful and applied for a judicial review of the drug testing procedures of New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing.
A judicial committee had ruled in February that the racing body's procedures were valid and Cropp had a case to answer.
Justice Pamela Andrews dismissed her case against the judicial committee.
Cropp's lawyer, Alan Ivory, told the Court of Appeal yesterday the racing industry had no right to drug-test Cropp because it was an interference with the fundamental right of people to refuse to give bodily samples.
But Justices John Fogarty and Susan Glazebrook both questioned whether taking the sample was a breach of the Bill of Rights, as drug testing of sports people and those who worked in dangerous activities was common worldwide, and by taking part in those activities people agreed to forfeit that right.
Counsel for the racing body, Brian Dickey, said testing was done for safety reasons.
Justices Glazebrook, Fogarty and John Wild reserved their decision.
- NZPA
