KEY POINTS:
Chief Justice Dame Sian Elias has excused herself from hearing a Supreme Court case involving top jockey Lisa Cropp, who is riding one of her horses tomorrow.
Cropp will ride Resolution - owned by Dame Sian and her husband Hugh Fletcher - in the listed race track stakes at Matamata and will likely be on the horse if it runs in the Auckland Cup next month.
Cropp has ridden the horse in its last four starts, including when it ran second in the Wellington Cup in January.
Cropp's Supreme Court case involving a positive drugs test will be heard next month. She tested positive for methamphetamine in a urine sample taken in a test at a race meeting in Hamilton on May 7, 2005.
Justice Pamela Andrews dismissed Cropp's case against the judicial committee in the High Court and her decision was upheld by the Court of Appeal on September 27.
She then went to the Supreme Court, which late last year granted her leave to appeal.
The Supreme Court yesterday said Dame Sian had excused herself from the case, but would not comment further.
Auckland University law professor Bill Hodge said it was not uncommon for judges to stand down if there was even the appearance of a conflict of interest.
He believed it was the correct thing to do in the Cropp case.
He said some may have questioned whether there could be a fair hearing when the jockey's employer was overseeing the case.
- NZPA
