Racing: Justice has NZ Cup in sights

Lance Justice gives the thumbs-up for a cup run. Photo / Natalie Slade

The man behind under-fire Interdominion winner Smoken Up is so confident he will keep the race he is already planning to return to New Zealand.

Trainer Lance Justice says Smoken Up's New Zealand Trotting Cup campaign is almost certainly back on as he believes the pacer will keep the Interdominion title he won at Alexandra Park in April even though it is under a drug cloud.

Smoken Up headed home an Australian-trained trifecta in the $800,000 race on April 8 but soon after returned a positive swab to DMSO.

The three-day inquiry into the positive swab ended in Wellington last week with the JCA requesting submissions from Justice's legal team and the Racing Integrity Unit next week.

But Justice is so confident of Smoken Up keeping the race he is planning his return to New Zealand.

Emotional after the initial shock of the positive and subsequent inquiry, Justice said he would never race another horse in New Zealand if Smoken Up was disqualified from the Interdominion final.

That could have gone down as one of racing's greatest ever examples of cutting off your nose to spite your race, as Smoken Up would be a warm favourite in any New Zealand Cup fixed odds market.

But Justice says after experiencing the New Zealand Judicial Control Authority he is happy to return here.

"Your JCA system is miles ahead of anything else in the world," Justice told the Herald.

"We got a very fair hearing, as I am sure the other side did, too, and that is all you can ask for."

Justice is adamant he did not administer DMSO to Smoken Up before the final and that any positive must be the result of contamination or a testing error.

"I swear I have never given the horse DMSO in my life," said Justice.

"And I think that will be accepted by the JCA and then the question will be how it did get there if it was there at all?"

Justice says the owners of Smoken Up feel they were treated fairly at the hearing and the majority have told them they would like to be at Addington on November 8 for the New Zealand Cup. "So I think we will be there. We would love to show the New Zealand public what he can do again."

Justice says the trip will depend on Addington bosses confirming all cup runners will have personal security on the day of the great race.

"I still believe that was the problem on Inter night," said Justice.

"I think the horse got contaminated by somebody touching him because there was no real security on the horses.

"His levels were so low that is all it would have taken."

While a trainer crying innocent over a drug charge is nothing new, Herald investigations suggest genuine nerves among leading racing officials that Smoken Up may keep the Interdominion win.

That would bring into question raceday security, which is already lax in New Zealand compared with many parts of the world or, even worse, our pre and post-race testing protocols.

Either way the decision, which is expected in two weeks, will be one of the more eagerly anticipated in the history of New Zealand drug inquiries.

As for Smoken Up, he races again in Victoria on Friday night and could open as short as $3 in the first New Zealand Cup market in two weeks, especially with key rivals Themightyquinn and Stunin Cullen out of the classic.