Controversial Queensland racing identity Ben Currie has been disqualified for 18 months by stewards over his role in a bizarre cocaine horse saga.
Currie held a restricted stablehand license when End Assembly, trained by his father Mark, won a $200,000 Stakes race at Eagle Farm last December.
Mark and Ben Currie had been awaiting penalty since being found guilty by Queensland racing stewards after End Assembly had tested positive to cocaine post-race.
Racenet has now learned Ben Currie has been disqualified for 18 months by stewards while Mark Currie, who was not on course at Eagle Farm on the day in question, has been slapped with a $15,000 fine.
Ben Currie was working as a stablehand for his father as part of his reintegration into racing when the unbeaten three-year-old galloper won the Listed Gold Edition Plate at Eagle Farm.
Ben Currie has been handed an 18-month DQ by stewards Picture: Mark Cranitch
Currie, along with his father, was charged under a racing rule that if a horse tests positive to a banned substance before or after a race, the trainer and any other person who was in charge of the horse at any relevant time has breached the Australian Rules of Racing.
The cocaine horse saga has been one of the most explosive and sensational in Queensland racing history.
Punter Nigel Soden sensationally threw the case wide open when he submitted a statutory declaration saying he was behind End Assembly’s failed drugs test, admitting he consumed “two bags” of cocaine before bursting into the winners enclosure and petting the horse.
High-powered legal eagle Tim Ryan KC, assisting the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission at the stewards’ inquiry, suggested to Soden he never petted the horse and video footage showed him a significant distance away.
Mark Currie says son Ben was simply one of three stablehands in charge of the horse that day, with no more seniority than the other two.
Stewards confirmed although End Assembly’s pre-race blood sample returned negative to any banned substances, his post-race urine sample twice tested positive to cocaine.
The matter has played out in a year where Ben Currie had been hoping to be relicensed as a trainer after his chequered past in the industry.
End Assembly has been stripped of the Listed Gold Edition Plate following the positive swab return Picture: Grant Peters – Trackside Photography
At one point, Ben Currie was Queensland’s most prolific trainer of winners but his world began to crash following a stable raid on Weetwood Handicap day in Toowoomba in 2018.
Currie ended up facing a brace of other stewards’ charges – resulting in a two-year ban for matters related to a “boost paste” being administered to a horse under Currie’s watch and administering “shockwave therapy” to horses within seven clear days of racing.
His ban from racing ended in 2021.
Ben Currie’s disqualification is set to be appealed to Queensland‘s newly established Racing Appeals Panel which commenced operation recently.
It replaces the Queensland Civil And Administrative Tribunal appeals process which was beset with red tape and huge backlogs.
End Assembly will be disqualified from its Gold Edition victory where it won $116,000 for connections.