Leading jockey admits using cocaine after testing positive on race day

Sam Weatherley has ridden more than 400 winners in New Zealand but faces being suspended from riding. Photo / Trish Dunell

Senior New Zealand jockey Sam Weatherley is set to plead guilty to a drug charge that could lead to him being disqualified from race riding for an extended period.

Weatherley has returned a positive for cocaine metabolites after random drug testing at the Waikato Thoroughbred Racing meeting at Te Rapa on January 30.

He has been stood down from race riding since the positive test was confirmed 10 days later and the 26-year-old said he takes full responsibility for having traces of the drug in his system.

Weatherley will not fight charges at a Racing Integrity Board hearing, which is likely to be next month.

“I did something stupid several days before I was tested and won’t be fighting the charge,” Weatherley told the Herald.

“I take full responsibility for what I did. I’m embarrassed about it.

“I have let down my family, my friends and my supporters and the racing industry, which I love being part of.

“It was a stupid thing to do, it was on a non-racing day and it was several days before I rode again but I know that isn’t the point.

“I have never ridden a horse under the influence of any substance but I also understand the rules are there for a reason.”


Jockeys undergo random drug testing at race and/or trial meetings and Weatherley has not previously returned a positive.

He realises he could be disqualified for months or up to a year after the positive test.

“I have co-operated with the RIB investigator since I was informed of the result,” he said.

“I know I will learn from this and want to remain in the racing industry and try to make amends.”

Weatherley has ridden 442 winners in New Zealand, including 25 at the elite black-type level, including a Karaka Millions 3-Year-Old win on Pin Me Up.

The jockey was previously found guilty of reckless riding after causing the accident that resulted in fellow rider Taiki Yanagida dying from injuries suffered in a race fall at Cambridge in August 2022.

Weatherley had his jockey’s licence taken away for nine weeks for his involvement in the tragedy but hair and urine samples taken post that race day showed no signs of prohibited substances.

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.