KEY POINTS:
The long-running drug case involving top jockey Lisa Cropp may now be heading to the Court of Appeal two years after her urine sample was found to contain amphetamine and methamphetamine.
In a reserved judgment released this week Justice Pamela Andrews rejected an application for judicial review. The jockey had challenged the right of racing authorities to conduct drug tests.
The inquiry by racing's Judicial Control Committee (JCA) has been stalled by a series of challenges to its jurisdiction and the rules and regulations that govern racing. Cropp has taken two of those challenges to the High Court at Auckland.
Her challenge to the appointment of one member of the JCA hearing her case was dismissed in November.
The industry's hearing into her case had been set to resume next Thursday but may now be in doubt because of Cropp's indication she will appeal. A telephone conference between lawyers representing the parties was to be held today.
An option, which Cropp's lawyer, Barry Hart, indicated he was unlikely to favour, would be for the hearing to continue but for enforcement of any decision to remain on hold pending the outcome of any Court of Appeal hearing.
Cropp has continued to ride since her positive drug test and has been New Zealand's leading rider for the past two years. In her most recent High Court application, Cropp's lawyers argued that the Racing Act 2003 did not require jockeys to provide routine samples for drug testing and that doing so breached the Bill of Rights Act 1990.
Justice Andrews said an individual's right had to be balanced against the legitimate interest of the racing authority to regulate the sport.
Safety was paramount in an environment where jockeys rode 500-600kg horses travelling at 50-55km/h in close proximity and therefore curtailed to some extent the individual's rights.
The industry's drug-testing rules were "justified by considerations of safety and deterrence ... [and] do not any more than is reasonably necessary ... impair jockeys' rights".
"I am satisfied that there is proportionality between the limit that the drug-testing rules impose on Ms Cropp's right and the importance of the objective of the rules."
Mr Hart said he was pleased the judge recognised that the Bill of Rights applied but would challenge the weight the judge gave it.
Unfolding Case
* May 7, 2005: Lisa Cropp provides a urine sample that was found to contain traces of amphetamine and methamphetamine.
* August 2005: The Judicial Control Authority begins hearing the case. The case has since been delayed by a series of challenges by Cropp to the JCA's authority to hear the case.
* Cropp has now lost her latest High Court challenge regarding her drug case.
* She has topped the jockeys' premiership the past two seasons and shares the lead in the current season ending on July 31.
