Trainer Colette Cooper has been disqualified for six months after being found guilty of four charges relating to an elevated bicarb reading detected in Stella Blue at the Mildura Cup meeting earlier this year.
Mildura-based Cooper pleaded not guilty at the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary (RAD) Board hearing to administering or causing to be administered alkalinising agents to the five-year-old mare prior to her running in the Sunraysia Daily Maiden Plate (1800m) on May 21.
She also pleaded not guilty to making a false and misleading statement at a stewards’ inquiry on May 26 and providing a false or misleading statement to the Sunraysia Daily newspaper on or about May 31.
However Cooper pleaded guilty to Stella Blue returning a TCO2 concentration in excess of 36 millimoles per litre in plasma as detected in a blood sample from the mare.
The RAD Board found all charges proven and disqualified Cooper for six months, until June 19 next year, on the charge of administering a prohibited substance.
She was suspended for two months on the elevated TCO2 reading and one month on each false or misleading evidence charge.
The suspensions are to be served concurrently.
Stella Blue was having only her second race start at Mildura and was disqualified from finishing ninth.
Fellow trainer Ron Daniel was fined $500 on a charge of improper or insulting behaviour towards stewards during an inquiry at Swan Hill on June 11 which related to Stella Blue’s positive swab.
Cooper had told the Sunraysia Daily she believed Stella Blue had been tampered with before the Mildura race and that there had been a breach of security at the racecourse.
AAP TURF
