Racing: Disqualified Harris vows to come back

Waikato jockey Troy Harris said last night that he was determined to come back to race riding, despite being disqualified for 21 months yesterday.

The highly talented 21-year-old was disqualified by the Judicial Control Authority at a Hamilton hearing after he was found to have attempted to switch urine samples.

A disqualification means Harris will be unable to ride trackwork or be on any licensed premises.

Harris admitted a Serious Racing Offence within the Rules of Racing.

The hearing followed an incident when Harris took a Berocca tube containing another person's urine to a recent meeting at Matamata Racecourse. He admitted that he had done this on previous occasions.

The incident was uncovered when a nurse observed Harris behaving suspiciously and he was detected attempting to present the other urine as his own.

The committee was told that Harris was asked to provide his own urine sample at 2pm that day but had still not done so by 6pm and left the course in defiance of the direction given to him by a racecourse inspector.

When questioned, he said he was taking drugs to reduce his weight. The committee said it was highly sceptical of this explanation considering if that was all he had in his system he would not have avoided providing a sample.

The committee, chaired by Murray McKechnie assisted by Bruce Squire, QC, held that this was a serious case of its type because of the deceit involved and the fact that Harris had previously appeared before the JCA resulting from a positive cannabis test.

The most serious aspect in their view was the pre-planning involved. When the case was looked at in its totality, members considered that a disqualification of 21 months was appropriate. The committee acknowledged Harris' relative youth, the fact that he has had some significant successes as a rider and stated that they wanted him to stay in the industry.

Harris' lawyer said his client wanted to continue his career as a jockey and recognised that he would have to accept his penalty.