Tokyo Tycoon returns positive Grp 1 Sistema Stakes

[Chief Stipe]

Tokyo Tycoon returns post-race positive

loveracing.nz

Tokyo Tycoon has returned a post-race positive result to meloxicam following his victory in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Pukekohe earlier this m  Photo: Kirstin Ledington

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NZ Racing Desk

Unbeaten Mark Walker-trained juvenile Tokyo Tycoon has returned a post-race positive result to meloxicam following his victory in the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) at Pukekohe on March 11.

The son of Satono Aladdin defeated Ulanova, Tulsi and To Catch A Thief to cap a perfect five from five campaign.

After being notified by the Racing Integrity Board of the positive, Te Akau Racing have released the following statement:

“We are extremely disappointed to be advised by the Racing Integrity Board (RIB) that Tokyo Tycoon has returned a positive post-race result for a non-steroidal, anti-inflammatory medication following the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes.

“This news has come as an enormous shock as we have trained 155 winners this year in New Zealand alone, 30 at Group level, and every other horse has delivered a 100% clear post-race result.

“Te Akau always conducts itself with the utmost integrity and professionalism. Our whole team is deeply committed to these principles. We take pride in our robust systems, which have been noted by the RIB. Abiding by all rules of racing is non-negotiable for us.

“The post-race result indicates the presence of meloxicam which is commonly used within the industry and is administered as an anti-inflammatory medication post-gallop. This treatment was not prescribed to Tokyo Tycoon making this result a mystery.

“We are working very closely and co-operatively with the RIB to ascertain exactly what has happened, and to establish how this has occurred.

“There are, in our view, only two possibilities for this to have occurred: ether a human error, or deliberate administration by an unknown party.

“We have CCTV throughout our stable, and this footage is currently being analysed to identify what has occurred. We have shared this data with the RIB.

“We feel very disappointed for Tokyo Tycoon's owners who are wonderful friends and supporters of our stable - and for the horse himself as Tokyo Tycoon proved to be the stand-out 2YO throughout this season.

“As this is an on-going investigation, there will be no further comment.”

Should Tokyo Tycoon be disqualified, the Stephen Marsh-trained Ulanova would be the Gr.1 Sistema Stakes (1200m) winner.

[The Centaur]

I realize it's not worth referring to the cafe site but really the TeAkau/scooby postings are hilarious. Everyone who posts anything re Te Akau requires a terrorist vetting procedure from him.

When Probabeel won the Epsom I brought up the fact Margaret Bull had won the Epsom & Turnbull on the same day. This resulted in a torrid of abuse from this scooby who believed I was downplaying Te Akau achievements. 

[Chief Stipe]

38 minutes ago, The Centaur said:

I realize it's not worth referring to the cafe site but really the TeAkau/scooby postings are hilarious. Everyone who posts anything re Te Akau requires a terrorist vetting procedure from him.

When Probabeel won the Epsom I brought up the fact Margaret Bull had won the Epsom & Turnbull on the same day. This resulted in a torrid of abuse from this scooby who believed I was downplaying Te Akau achievements. 

Well the usual suspects may be inclined to cast aspersions but I find an open debate is a good leveller.  

Seems to be a trend over there where it is OK to slam a Track Manager or a Trackside Presenter but not the hierarchy that hired them or have done nothing to fix the problems just make them worse.

[Huey]

39 minutes ago, The Centaur said:

I realize it's not worth referring to the cafe site but really the TeAkau/scooby postings are hilarious. Everyone who posts anything re Te Akau requires a terrorist vetting procedure from him.

When Probabeel won the Epsom I brought up the fact Margaret Bull had won the Epsom & Turnbull on the same day. This resulted in a torrid of abuse from this scooby who believed I was downplaying Te Akau achievements. 

I couldn't agree more, quick to stick the knife into others over any small indiscretions but petrified Dave Ellis might call him out at the races.

[Huey]

A terrible look for the stable , absolutely no doubt about that. 

Not a poppy seed in sight this time, but they are once again deemed squeaky clean once again.

Sabotage , for goodness sake who could be bothered? Absolutely the weakest excuse one could make, I'm picking they'll stick with the errant staff member line for this one.

[Chief Stipe]

8 minutes ago, Huey said:

I couldn't agree more, quick to stick the knife into others over any small indiscretions but petrified Dave Ellis might call him out at the races.

Cut Scooby some slack.  His skin is so stretched over his frame that a feather would hurt him.  

[nod]

The horse will be disqualified -that's the rule

Talk elsewhere of precedents for non-disqualification are tripe-the last incident was an Auckland cup winner allowed to retain the race because the connections were above reproach -that was a very long time ago  and I would be kinda cross if it happened again.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, Huey said:

A terrible look for the stable , absolutely no doubt about that. 

Not a poppy seed in sight this time, but they are once again deemed squeaky clean once again.

Sabotage , for goodness sake who could be bothered? Absolutely the weakest excuse one could make, I'm picking they'll stick with the errant staff member line for this one.

It will be one of three things - a deliberate act by someone, environmental contamination or a mistake by a staff member.

One thing is guaranteed it won't have been intentional.  

I'm betting on inconclusive environmental contamination with a very low level detected.  Once again the owners will probably lose out for something that wasn't performance enhancing.

There have been some other drug positives in the industry in recent months and not a skerrick of interest in them.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, nod said:

The horse will be disqualified -that's the rule

Talk elsewhere of precedents for non-disqualification are tripe-the last incident was an Auckland cup winner allowed to retain the race because the connections were above reproach -that was a very long time ago  and I would be kinda cross if it happened again.

Isn't it time that the industry reviewed testing levels?  In the poppy case for example the level of opioid detected would have had no effect on the horse at all.

[Chief Stipe]

Looks like the Comic Dog has some information that the rest of us don't know about.  Suggesting the positive returned a high level of the drug.  Has the RIB released that information?

So if it isnt low level then it is either nobbling or a staff mistake.

Has the RIB leaked information again?

 

[The Centaur]

This brings to mind a bit of history. Only a vitamin administered but a 3 year disqualification. extracted  from https://www.kingsoftheturf.com/1975-no-sign-of-battlers/

.....   Walton had brought to Australia a strapping chestnut colt of his own breeding by Knight’s Romance, for the rich two-year-old races in Sydney. Both on the basis of appearance and performance the horse was appropriately named Commanding; and was the winner of five of his six starts and $7,490 in New Zealand, including the prestigious  C.J.C. Welcome Stakes (6f) at Riccarton on January 14, 1961, when he ran a sensational 1 minute and 9 seconds to defeat a good field of two and three-year-olds. Considering that the Australian record for a two-year-old over the same distance then stood at 1 minute and 10 seconds, Walton’s confidence was understandable.

Alas, Commanding injured his leg on the boat while crossing the Tasman, which interrupted his program. A cold contracted shortly after arrival didn’t help matters either. Nonetheless, Walton persisted in his quest for Sydney’s triple crown for juveniles. Commanding was the first New Zealand colt ever to contest the S.T.C. Golden Slipper and he went to the post in 1961 at 9/4 with Bill Longworth’s Young Brolga, trained by Maurice McCarten, as the 5/4 favourite. As it transpired, the little Star Kingdom filly, Magic Night, gave her sire his fifth win in five years when she came from the back of the field to swamp the favourites. At the post, she had a half-length to spare over Young Brolga, with Commanding four lengths away third.

The same three horses then filled the placings in the A.J.C. Sires’ Produce Stakes, only this time Young Brolga was victorious with Commanding the runner-up as the 7/4 favourite – beaten two-and-a-half lengths in a time of 1 minute 22.8 seconds, which bettered the race record of 1 minute 23.5 seconds established by Ajax back in 1937. Two days later, Commanding completed his two-year-old season when he ran the minor placing in the A.J.C. Champagne Stakes behind the high-priced Columbia Star and Young Brolga. On the boat transporting both he and Commanding back to Wellington, New Zealand, in April 1961, Walton planned a spring Derby campaign for his prized racehorse.

.......

As early-season three-year-olds, Commanding and Castlerae were nigh unbeatable. Although the pair were officially listed as being trained by L. M. Lewis, in reality, George Walton prepared them and they were only under Lewis’s name because George believed it would assist the younger man to establish a reputation. Kept apart by Walton, Castlerae won both the Wanganui Guineas and the Hawkes Bay Guineas (after losing lengths at the start), while Commanding won four races on the trot including the Great Northern Guineas and the Wellington Guineas, which saw the giant colt promoted to short-priced favouritism for the New Zealand Derby.

However, it was after the Wellington Guineas that Commanding returned a positive urine sample to thiamine. Although not a prohibited drug according to the doping regulations, the New Zealand Racing Conference had cautioned that excessive use of it could lead to charges being laid. Thus began an interminable legal challenge. Given that Commanding became ineligible to run in the New Zealand Derby, George Walton switched Castlerae from his Stewards Handicap engagement to become the stable’s representative in the classic, a race and distance for which the horse had not been trained. As it transpired, Castlerae managed to run second to the favourite Burgos, a galloper that Commanding had easily beaten in the Wellington Guineas.

Of course, it is impossible to know whether Commanding would have won that Derby, but Walton had no doubts, for he had tried Commanding to be a stone better racehorse than Castlerae, who nonetheless won the prestigious Jockey Club Handicap and Churchill Stakes later at the same Riccarton meeting. There was another measure of consolation when George Walton’s filly, Fair Symbol, impressively won the New Zealand Oaks at the same time. Soon after, however, New Zealand racing authorities disqualified Walton for three years. Commanding and Castlerae were subsequently sold to the Californian racing identity, Rex Ellsworth, for an undisclosed amount and never raced in New Zealand again. When this turbulent history is taken into account, was it any wonder that in 1975, Walton sought Derby salvation in his impressive chestnut colt by Battle-Wagon?

[mumbles]

Te Akau have said all the right things so far,but thats what you would expect.

[KickintheKods]

"I see some uninformed speculators elsewhere at best are saying it won't have been intentional as the levels will be so low...funny how people..mostly losers run off at the mouth trying to make themselves seem important when not even knowing the full facts...talking about levels when they know nothing about this particular instance....lets see when the full facts come out how much egg the certain losers on a loser site will have on his and his cohorts faces...The truth will come out, once again I have no horse in this race I just hate nillers and nobodies from elsewhere bleeting on without knowing jack shyte."

 

 

[Guest Whyisit]

3 hours ago, nod said:

The horse will be disqualified -that's the rule

Talk elsewhere of precedents for non-disqualification are tripe-the last incident was an Auckland cup winner allowed to retain the race because the connections were above reproach -that was a very long time ago  and I would be kinda cross if it happened again.

What about the New Plymouth debacle not so long ago . the owners may have been above reproach   nothing changed

[Chief Stipe]

51 minutes ago, KickintheKods said:

"I see some uninformed speculators elsewhere at best are saying it won't have been intentional as the levels will be so low...funny how people..mostly losers run off at the mouth trying to make themselves seem important when not even knowing the full facts...talking about levels when they know nothing about this particular instance....lets see when the full facts come out how much egg the certain losers on a loser site will have on his and his cohorts faces...The truth will come out, once again I have no horse in this race I just hate nillers and nobodies from elsewhere bleeting on without knowing jack shyte."

 

 

He can't even come up with his own insults.  Remember Molly used to say the same things.

[Huey]

I don't buy the its a big stable and these things happen excuse , combined how many positives have the other leading stables had over the past 12-18 months?

[Chief Stipe]

2 hours ago, Huey said:

I don't buy the its a big stable and these things happen excuse , combined how many positives have the other leading stables had over the past 12-18 months?

What don't you buy?  There has been a few in OZ.  Neasham for one.  

What is strange with the TA positive is that the drug in question was never prescribed for the horse.  

A quick look through the RIB database and NZ is averaging a horse drug positive every 2 to 3 months.  Mainly for anti-inflammatories. 

[mumbles]

when they say "never prescribed '" do they mean has never had it or not had it leading up to that race but may have had it at other times.

[Chief Stipe]

27 minutes ago, mumbles said:

when they say "never prescribed '" do they mean has never had it or not had it leading up to that race but may have had it at other times.

Does it matter?  The fact is it wasn't prescribed prior to the Sistema Stakes.  

It is legal to use but has a withholding period.  As the statement said it is commonly used as a post race treatment as an anti-inflammatory.

[mumbles]

45 minutes ago, Chief Stipe said:

Does it matter?  The fact is it wasn't prescribed prior to the Sistema Stakes.  

It is legal to use but has a withholding period.  As the statement said it is commonly used as a post race treatment as an anti-inflammatory.

Their statement doesn't say that  it wasn't prescribed prior to the Sistema,so there is every chance that he may have had it after his previous race 25/2.

[Chief Stipe]

1 hour ago, mumbles said:

Their statement doesn't say that  it wasn't prescribed prior to the Sistema,so there is every chance that he may have had it after his previous race 25/2.

 

21 hours ago, Chief Stipe said:

The post-race result indicates the presence of meloxicam which is commonly used within the industry and is administered as an anti-inflammatory medication post-gallop. This treatment was not prescribed to Tokyo Tycoon making this result a mystery.

It says it "was not prescribed" which would suggest it wasn't administered after his previous win on 25 Feb I.e. 14 days previously.

In any case the withholding period I think for meloxicam is four days.  The detection time is three days so it would have to have been administered within 72 hours of the sample time to be detected.

[All The Aces]

Stable staff error.  

[Special Agent]

10 hours ago, mumbles said:

when they say "never prescribed '" do they mean has never had it or not had it leading up to that race but may have had it at other times.

I interpret this differently to some on here.

If I had a kick from a horse sufficient to break my leg and couldn't sleep because of the pain the fact that voltaren had not been prescribed for me would not stop me taking some pills out of someone elses bottle.

I think it is irrelevant whether it was prescribed or not.  If the drugs are in the system they have been administered.

 

[curious]

47 minutes ago, Special Agent said:

I interpret this differently to some on here.

If I had a kick from a horse sufficient to break my leg and couldn't sleep because of the pain the fact that voltaren had not been prescribed for me would not stop me taking some pills out of someone elses bottle.

I think it is irrelevant whether it was prescribed or not.  If the drugs are in the system they have been administered.

 

Definitely were.

[Chief Stipe]

Mistake by Senior Foreman.