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Should Junoob's owners sue Chris Waller?

Roar Guru
17th December, 2014
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Roar Guru
17th December, 2014
2

The decision to fine Chris Waller just $30,000 after his horse Junoob was disqualified from the Metropolitan for having a banned substance in his system is an outrage.

It is something I have stewed on for days, but when there was the perfect opportunity to send a message, Racing New South Wales completely backed off.

$30,000 is drop in the ocean for Australia’s head trainer, who would’ve been more than happy to have made the donation than be banned.

This is when you consider the fact that the horse that came second, Opinion, who was also trained by Waller, collected $245,000 in total prize money.

While I don’t agree with it, the decision to not ban Waller was the right one. With such a large operation in place it is likely that mistakes will happen from time to time. If Waller was to be banned the Sydney racing scene would’ve been crippled due to the multitude of runners he has in work on a weekly basis.

It would be likely that rather than fields of five or six we would be having two-horse races and that’s something no racing enthusiast wants to see.

One question still lingers in my mind though.

Should the owners of Junoob sue Waller’s stable for his negligence?

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If I was part of Junoob’s ownership I would have been devastated to have all the prize money and the status of my horse winning a Group 1 race taken away.

At the very least they could try and claim some money back from Waller. Training and looking after a horse is a costly business, and in this case the owners have been let down by the person they trusted.

While Waller admitted in his statement last week that it was an honest mistake, surely the owners must feel aggrieved? It just doesn’t seem right that Chris Waller gets off so lightly for breaking the rules.

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