Two rising Sydney harness racing drivers embroiled in a drug-testing scandal have been banned from the sport for more than two years after one submitted the other’s urine as his own after they’d spent the night at a bucks party.
Jack Brown and Lucas Rando were suspended after samples they handed over to stewards following a race meeting in Goulburn last October were determined to have come from the same person.
Jack Brown takes the reins at Menangle Park before being stood down.Credit: Club Menangle
Further scientific examination showed that the urine was Rando’s.
The pair, who are both in their early 20s, had been at a bucks party on Sydney Harbour the night before and provided samples inside a toilet cubicle at the track rather than being closely monitored by race officials.
Brown pleaded guilty to four charges brought by Harness Racing NSW over the substitution of the specimen and evidence he provided to investigators, as well a positive test he recorded to a banned substance in a subsequent sample he gave.
He was disqualified for two years and six months, backdated from November 2024, and received an additional six-month suspension, bringing his ban to three years.
Rando was hit with three charges for assisting Brown in breaching rules and over evidence given to stewards. He also pleaded guilty and was disqualified for two years and three months, also starting from when he was stood down last November.
Lucas Rando in the driver’s seat at NSW harness racing headquarters.Credit: Club Menangle
The disqualification not only forbids them from driving but from attending racetracks and other licensed racing premises. Other industry participants are also not permitted to associate with them on racing-related matters.
Brown and Rando have appealed against the severity of the penalties, arguing they are excessive and out of step with precedents.
Others found responsible for similar conduct in the past include Sydney-based thoroughbred trainer David Pfeiffer, who copped a nine-month ban in 2021 for switching urine samples, and Queensland jockey Matthew Powell, who was disqualified for a year in 2019 for providing two fake urine samples.
North Queensland jockey Kerry Rockett was also warned off for six months in 2020 for substituting two samples and Victorian apprentice rider Kayla Atkinson received the same punishment for the same offence in 2021.
In an infamous case in 2007, Queensland jockey Jason Warrington was struck out for six months when he was caught by drug testers squeezing urine out of a dildo he had tried to conceal in his pants. He had smoked marijuana at a party the weekend before the race meeting and was concerned he might test positive.
In imposing the sanctions, Harness Racing NSW stewards said they had taken into account the seriousness of the offences and the drivers’ personal circumstances as well as their records in the sport and their guilty pleas.
Brown and Rando appeared at an inquiry while Rando also provided a written statement. Harness Racing NSW said Melbourne-based Racing Analytical Services and the Victorian Institute of Forensic Medicine had analysed samples provided on October 21 at Goulburn and November 19 at Menangle Park, the sport’s NSW headquarters in outer south-west Sydney.
While Brown and Rando have been sidelined, their troubles also exposed a failure in drug-testing practices in an industry in which is there more than $1 billion in betting each year.
Testing of drivers is supposed to take place in full view of officials as occurs with athletes who are tested at random by agencies such as Sport Integrity Australia and the International Testing Agency, which runs anti-doping programmes for the Olympic Games and international sporting federations.
Brown was able to submit Rando’s urine as his own because they had been allowed to provide samples behind a toilet door at Goulburn.
