Racing: Date change put trainer in hot water

By MIKE DILLON

It will be up to 10 days before a sentence is handed down in the Mark Walker case.

Walker yesterday pleaded guilty to three charges of Serious Racing Offences at a New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing hearing at Ellerslie.

The charges centred around the authenticity of an eligibility document to allow the horse, Warm Regards, to run in a jumpers' flat event at Te Aroha races on May 3.

The hearing was told Walker entered Warm Regards for the Te Aroha race on April 27, at which time the horse had a jumping ticket and was therefore qualified to start.

A few days later Walker discovered that the jumping ticket would lapse three days before the race.

On the Friday before the Wednesday race, Walker was due to leave for Brisbane at 7 am with a team of horses aimed at the Queensland winter carnival.

At the Matamata track at 6 am he asked what was required to obtain a further jumping ticket.

When told it needed two separate schooling exhibitions, Walker realised that, because the club's jumping facilities were open only Mondays and Wednesdays, there would be insufficient time to qualify Warm Regards to race.

At that point the 1999 jumping ticket was altered to read 2000.

On raceday officials were suspicious of the horse's qualifications. Racecourse inspector John McKenzie telephoned Walker in Brisbane and the document was faxed from Walker's Matamata stable to the races.

McKenzie then spoke to Walker again, who assured him the horse had undergone the correct qualification procedure and that he had been told by Matamata Racing Club official Craig Settle that it was acceptable to simply change the year on the existing jumping ticket.

Reassured, Mr McKenzie allowed Warm Regards to start and the horse finished fifth, earning $137.50 in stakemoney.

One and a half hours later Walker telephoned John McKenzie to admit the story had been a fabrication and that he had committed a stupid offence.

The charges centred around altering the document and lying to a racecourse inspector.

In a lengthy defence, David Williams, QC, pointed out the falsification had not been done for financial gain. Walker had wanted the horse to race to improve its fitness for engagements later in the winter.

Walker had hoped for the qualification never to become an issue.

At that time Walker was leading the New Zealand trainers' premierships and was under "chaotic pressure".

"This was no premeditative plan - not a well-laid plot.

"The call from Mr McKenzie sent him into a spiral of panic. He froze and gave Mr McKenzie the false story about Craig Settle ...

"After advising Mr McKenzie of the true position he later supplied a signed written statement acknowledging his culpability and his stupidity and expressing regret for all the trouble he had caused to his own stable, his employer and the racing industry generally."

Letters of endorsement presented yesterday included testimonials from Sir Patrick Hogan, Ken and Ann Browne, former Racing Industry Board chairman Garry Chittick, New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing board member Peter Grieve and Racing Industry Board deputy chairman Peter Henson.

After the hearing Walker said the whole affair was a small thing that went tragically wrong.

"It was a stupid thing to do and I will never stop regretting it."

Walker finished second on the trainers' premiership to the Hawtin/Rogerson stable.

Te Akau Thoroughbreds principal David Ellis. who employs Walker, said: "Mark has my full and total support. I greatly admire his talent and his dedication.

"He is also very grateful for the tremendous amount of support shown to him from all sectors of the industry. I am aware of the long hours he was working and the strain he was under at the time.

"In no way does that excuse his action, but I can understand how a man who has been working at least 18 hours a day, seven days a week, could succumb to a serious lapse in judgment."