Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) chief steward Terry Bailey has refused to confirm or deny that Richard Laming is the trainer who has been told two of his horses have returned swab irregularities to the banned substance EPO.Bailey said at Caulfield races on Saturday that stewards would not be releasing anything more about the case until the confirmatory sample was analysed in the United Kingdom."We are not saying anything more until the results of the sample being analysed in the UK come back," he
Racing Victoria Limited (RVL) chief steward Terry Bailey has refused to confirm or deny that Richard Laming is the trainer who has been told two of his horses have returned swab irregularities to the banned substance EPO.
Bailey said at Caulfield races on Saturday that stewards would not be releasing anything more about the case until the confirmatory sample was analysed in the United Kingdom.
"We are not saying anything more until the results of the sample being analysed in the UK come back," he said.
"Once there was an irregularity, we were obligated to tell the trainer."
Laming, who has co-trained with his Queensland-based father Bevan since last year, has set up a multi-million training establishment at Fiveways near Cranbourne in the past few months.
Bevan Laming trains at Jacobs Well in the Gold Coast hinterland.
On Saturday, News Limited newspapers reported that Richard Laming denied to stewards any knowledge of the blood-boosting drug when they informed him of the irregularities.
They reported that Laming said Bailey and six other stewards raided his Fiveways property at 9am on Friday and were there for about three hours.
Laming also told the papers he had nothing to hide and was not concerned at all about the stewards' visit.
Stewards allegedly inspected the stable and took blood samples from a number of horses on Friday.
Laming also said the stewards had visited the stable about a fortnight ago.
RVL integrity services manager Dayle Brown said on Friday that stewards had told "a Victorian trainer" the results of out-of-competition blood samples taken from his horses had shown an irregularity to either recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO) or darbopoetin alpha (DPO).
The initial findings were reported to RVL by Racing Analytical Services Limited (RASL) through their screening process and then confirmed by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Laboratory.
Further analysis of the samples is currently being conducted by the Horse Racing Forensic Laboratory in the UK.
Brown said a new kit for testing for EPO had been in place since last spring.
"We've had this robust regime in place for some time and this is the first time we've detected the substance EPO," he said.