Horse racing: Former Cole representatives forced out of Ellerslie meeting

Impressive debut winner Amourette has been forced out of tomorrow's Ellerslie meeting. Photo / Kenton Wright

Trainer Cody Cole’s dramatic week took another twist on Thursday when his horses were scratched from tomorrow’s big Ellerslie meeting.

Cole was handed a 12-month disqualification on Wednesday for failing to provide a urine sample for drug testing during trackwork at Matamata last July.

He has indicated he will appeal both the verdict and sentence imposed but has not applied for a stay of proceedings.

Cole, who sits fifth-equal on the national trainer’s premiership, told the Herald on Wednesday night the horses his stable had engaged for this weekend would transfer to his father Tony Cole, who would train the team until stable foreman Troy Harris is given a trainer’s licence.

As a disqualified person, Cody Cole would not be allowed at the stables or any other licenced premises or a racetrack.

But that plan hit a hitch on Thursday, because while Tony Cole has been a long-time trainer, he does not have a current licence – so the horses were effectively left without an official trainer.

Racing officials said since Cole’s licence has lapsed and he had yet to has a new licence approved, the horses had to be scratched.

That means Atmospheric was taken out of the $150,000 Manco Easter and impressive debut winner Amourette will not be allowed to start in the $100,000 Sky City Star Way Stakes, which carries important black type.

Several owners involved with Cole-trained horses who were scratched expressed their disappointment to the Herald yesterday, believing they and their horses were being punished for an incident that had nothing to do with them.

Michael Guerin wrote his first nationally published racing articles while still in school and started writing about horse racing and the gambling industry for the Herald as a 20-year-old in 1990. He became the Herald’s Racing Editor in 1995 and covers the world’s biggest horse racing carnivals.