HRV Stewards have issued charges against licensed trainers Craig Cross and Joe Taaffe under Australian Harness Racing Rule (AHRR) 190(1), which reads:
A horse shall be presented for a race free of prohibited substances.
It is alleged that the horse ‘Ima Kennedy Two’ was presented to race at Cranbourne on 28 January 2018 by Mr Taaffe, on behalf of Mr Cross who was not in attendance, when not free of arsenic, a prohibited substance when evidenced at a concentration above the allowable threshold.
AHRR 190(3) reads as follows:
If a person is left in charge of a horse and the horse is presented for a race otherwise than in accordance with sub rule (1), the trainer of the horse and the person left in charge is each guilty of an offence.
The charges against both participants will be heard by the HRV Racing Appeals and Disciplinary (RAD) Board on a date to be fixed.