THE training partnership of Bevan and Richard Laming was last night seeking to gain an injunction from the Victorian Supreme Court to have its two starters who were due to race this weekend, reinstated, reports The Age.It says: This follows referee samples from the horses testing positive to EPO. The father-son combination had its two runners this weekend - Benelli in today's Liston Stakes at Caulfield and War Dancer in the Crisp Steeple at Sandown tomorrow - scratched by Racing Victoria Ltd ste
THE training partnership of Bevan and Richard Laming was last night seeking to gain an injunction from the Victorian Supreme Court to have its two starters who were due to race this weekend, reinstated, reports The Age.
It says: This follows referee samples from the horses testing positive to EPO. The father-son combination had its two runners this weekend - Benelli in today's Liston Stakes at Caulfield and War Dancer in the Crisp Steeple at Sandown tomorrow - scratched by Racing Victoria Ltd stewards after they received the results of tests in England.
Both Lamings say they are innocent and were last night hoping for an injunction to overturn RVL's ruling that the horses be scratched. Benelli has raced three times since June 11, when tests were conducted. He won at Sandown on June 13, finished second at Flemington on July 4 and won at Caulfield on July 18.
If Benelli was to be disqualified from those two wins, it would cost winning jockey Craig Williams a share of the Melbourne jockeys' premiership title for the 2008-09 season, after he tied with Damien Oliver.
''It's too early to pre-empt anything like that at this stage,'' acting chief steward Allan Reardon said. ''We're in the early stages of the investigation and the main thing was to withdraw the horses from their engagements based on the evidence we have been given.'' The blood samples were taken from Benelli and War Dancer on June 11 as part of out-of-competition testing being conducted by RVL.