No evidence of widespread doping, says Queensland integrity boss

Queensland's racing integrity commissioner Ross Barnett says he has no evidence to support claims by leading trainer Robert Heathcote that doping in horse racing is rife in Queensland.

Heathcote, the trainer of champion sprinter Buffering, lashed the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) in the media over the weekend, and on radio on Monday, calling for an immediate overhaul of the independent body.

Heathcote told Racenet he was certain racing "is not clean here, and it is possibly the worst it has been since I came into racing in 1997". He also said "current working stewards" and other trainers are frustrated at the lack of pre-race testing, which has opened the door for cheats to ramp up their offending.

"In these last two or three months, there have been so many race meetings where there has been zero pre-race testing. Zero," Heathcote told RSN Radio.

"Tubing a horse, administering an alkalising agent pre-race, once a horse has raced, the evidence is burned off.

"Every effort must be made, in our opinion, to restore confidence to us in the industry that there's far more pre-race testing, and I'm talking the $5000 maiden race at Gatton to the group race at Eagle Farm.

"At the end of the day, when form gets turned on its head for whatever reason, it diminishes confidence in the wagering industry."

But Barnett told The Age there was no proof that doping was as widespread as Heathcote claimed.

"While I would never dismiss the claims of any trainer who believes there is a problem, the evidence we have does not support Mr Heathcote's claims as to current frequency of the illegal conduct," he said.

"The Queensland Racing Integrity Commission has a strong testing regime and if any trainer has evidence of particular trainers abusing the TCO2 rule they should report it and we will investigate."

"That's what they said about Lance Armstrong for seven years. That's what they said about the Aquanita scandal."Robert Heathcote

Heathcote, however, said the QRIC was doing a poor job of policing the sport.

"Because you're not catching cheats that mean[s] nobody is cheating?" the Eagle Farm trainer asked.

"That's what they said about Lance Armstrong for seven years. That's what they said about the Aquanita scandal in Melbourne.

"I'd just like to see racing as clean as it can possibly be and have confidence restored to us all."

Sodium bicarbonate was the drug at the centre of the Aquanita scandal in Victoria, in which Robert Smerdon was banned for life. Racing Victoria relied on text messages to prosecute Smerdon and co, as its pre and post-race tests had failed to return positive results.

It wasn't until stablehand Greg Nelligan was caught red-handed with a syringe in his hand on Turnbull Stakes day at Flemington in 2017 that Victorian authorities were able to charge those involved.

Sodium bicarbonate is used to delay the affects of lactic acid in a horse's muscles, allowing that horse to perform at its best for longer.

But Barnett said he was "confident the QRIC testing is as good as anywhere around the world to detect wrongdoing in the racing industry".

"The QRIC Racing Science Centre has state of the art testing equipment and confirmatory testing is carried out in another interstate laboratory," he said.

"Since July 2017 there have been just under 5000 TCO2 pre-race tests for thoroughbreds with eight TCO2 confirmed samples."

Barnett added that concerned stewards "have the opportunity to discuss any concerns about our testing strategy directly with the Chief Steward at any time".