Harness racing is embroiled in a drug testing scandal after two up-and-coming drivers from Sydney submitted urine samples that were found with all but mathematical certainty to have come from the same person.
In a bombshell case like few others in Australian sport and racing, Jack Brown, 20, and Lucas Rando, 22, have been handed interim suspensions following scientific examination of samples they gave during a race meeting at Goulburn last month.
Emerging driver Jack Brown in the chair at Menangle Park, harness racing’s headquarters in NSW.Credit: Club Menangle
According to Harness Racing NSW, DNA analysis conducted by the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine determined it was 180 million times more likely that urine obtained from the duo “originated from the same individual than from an unrelated person chosen at random from the population”.
Brown and Rando, who have steered metropolitan winners on the marquee Saturday night program at Menangle Park, the racing code’s headquarters south-west of Sydney, were believed to have attended a buck’s party the night before the race meeting in Goulburn on October 21.
It’s understood samples were provided inside a toilet cubicle at the track and not in full view of stewards who oversee the testing of participants in the sport, on which $1 billion is wagered each year.
The young drivers face the possibility of years-long bans if it is found at an inquiry that they were involved in manipulation of the drug testing process, far outweighing the three- to six-month suspension competitors can expect if they’re actually discovered with illicit drugs in their system.
Lucas Rando in action before his interim suspension.Credit: Club Menangle
The pair have not yet been charged by stewards with any offences and it was unclear on Friday how they would respond to the discovery about their samples.
Solicitor Matthew Hammond, who is representing Brown, said when contacted: “It’s an ongoing stewards inquiry and I can’t comment”. Rando’s lawyer Peter Morris also declined to comment.
While DNA analysis showed the samples given in Goulburn to essentially be a match, it did not say whether the urine in both was Brown’s or Rando’s or someone else’s.
It is believed the two drivers have since provided follow-up samples that have been sent off to the laboratory in Melbourne.
Brown had been stood down after the race meet in Goulburn after failing to provide a second vial of urine at the racecourse when he was requested to do so by stewards, who had deemed his initial sample of insufficient volume.
That order was lifted two days later, with Brown cleared to return to the track, when testing was able to confirm the sample he gave was free of banned substances despite there being a low volume of it.
Under the rules of Australian harness racing, a driver commits an offence if they refuse to deliver a sample as directed by stewards, “or tampers with, adulterates, alters, substitutes or in any way hinders the collection of such sample or attempts to do any of those things”.
Prohibited race-day substances include cannabis, stimulants such as cocaine and benzodiazepines, while alcohol is also banned at a reading of more than 0.02 per cent on a breathalyser.
The circumstances surrounding Brown and Rando’s interim suspension are thought to be a first in harness racing in the state and there has been only one recent episode of drug testing tampering in thoroughbred horse racing in NSW.
That occurred a decade ago when jockey Josh Adams pleaded guilty at a Racing NSW stewards inquiry to contravening testing rules by using liquid in a container he had hidden in his clothing as a substitute for a urine sample. He was banned for two years.
In 2015, Parramatta Eels forward Kenny Edwards took a drug test on behalf of teammate Kaysa Pritchard, who told officials he had been concerned about ingesting a sleeping tablet that hadn’t been issued to him by the National Rugby League club’s doctor.
Pritchard was later instructed to provide a sample for testing, which was being conducted by the NRL in the pre-season, and both players came back clear.
Edwards was suspended for nine months by the NRL for breaching the testing protocol.
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