Greyhound racing case: Lengthy ban imposed on mother and daughter

A historic drug case in the greyhound racing industry has set several firsts but they're not the kind of records any sport would want.

On Thursday the Racing Integrity Board's adjudicative committee published its second penalty and costs decision in a case where a mother and daughter were both charged after a dog tested positive for methamphetamine.

"Until this case, the RIB has never laid dual charges in such a case," the ruling stated.

After greyhound Opawa Pip tested positive for the Class A drug in April 2022 at an Addington Raceway meet in Christchurch both Lisa Waretini, who holds a public trainer's licence, and her daughter Alysha Waretini, who holds a kennel hand licence, faced prosecution.

The pair were charged with failing to present the dog free of prohibited substances. They were among a string of failed drug test cases in the industry during the past year.

However, this was a unique case because it was the first time, as far as the committee was aware, that the person in charge of the greyhound had been charged with a presentation breach, in addition to the trainer.

The committee also noted it was the first time in the code it had sentenced a second person in relation to the same incident of presenting and not included administering.

It was also the first time a handler had been sentenced after the trainer, who had ultimate responsibility for ensuring the animal was drug-free and did not have contact with prohibited substances, had sanctions imposed for the same offence.

Lisa Waretini, who pleaded guilty to the charge early, told investigators while she was responsible for the dog's day-to-day care including feeding, she didn't attend the race meeting and Alysha had taken the dog in her van from their Christchurch home, a RIB decision from February this year stated.

Alysha, who earlier told an investigator she no longer used meth but still associated with people who did, denied the charge from the beginning, through seven teleconferences and a half-day defended hearing, before being found guilty.

"It transpired that the defence was somewhat dubious, based on allegations of abuse of process which the adjudicative committee rejected."

The only recognised defence, a total absence of fault, was expressly not argued at the hearing.

Alysha told the investigator she was never around her friends when they got high and claimed they didn't travel in her vehicles.

Hair and urine samples taken from Lisa and Alysha tested negative for the drug but tests on two vehicles at the property, used to transport dogs to races, both showed positive results for traces of meth.

The van tested positive above the driver and front passenger's seat and steering wheel.

In the RIB's February decision, Lisa Waretini was disqualified from the sport for 15 months and the committee found there was no evidence presented at either hearing to apportion blame on anything other than an equal basis.

A starting point of 18 months disqualification was adopted before Alysha Waretini was given a one-month discount for her previous good character and then a further two months were deducted, giving her a final sentence of a 15-month ban and parity with Lisa's penalty.

While the committee accepted as a mitigating factor that it was Alysha's first offence, in June 2022, two months after the dog tested positive, she was charged after repeatedly breaching Covid protocols by not wearing a face mask in the kennel block.

She again denied the charge and a hearing was held last month.

Evidence was given that after refusing three requests to put her face mask on, Alysha told a steward that "he was racist and that he was picking on the only brown-skin coloured person in this room, and that he was picking on her", the decision said.

After the steward replied he wasn't racist, the request was repeated but Alysha responded by yelling out that once she lost her licence, she was going to expose the RIB was racist to the media.

Eventually, after being advised if she didn't comply the rest of her dogs would be scratched from the meeting, Alysha wore her mask.

At the hearing Alysha acknowledged she had failed to comply with the request but argued rather than an act of disobedience, it was an objection to the way she was spoken to, describing it as "workplace bullying".

She was found guilty and fined $500.

In the drug prosecution, the RIB sought costs of $9508, 60 per cent of the $15,847 it cost to bring the charge.

In the absence of a detailed breakdown of the RIB's claim and without any information on Alysha's financial position the committee ordered her to pay 40 per cent of the total, $6340, plus a $750 contribution to its costs, a total amount of $7050.

* This story originally ran in the New Zealand Herald.