Trainer in spotlight as two horses test positive for EPO.

Byline: Amy Bennett

AUSTRALIA Trainer Richard Laming will have to wait another week before it is confirmed whether samples taken from two of his horses contain traces of EPO, the banned performanceenhancing drug, writes Amy Bennett.

Racing Victoria's chief steward, Terry Bailey, refused to confirm or deny on Saturday that Laming is the trainer under investigation, but it has been widely reported that Laming, who trains in partnership with his father Bevan, is the trainer under the spotlight.

"We are not saying anything more until the results of the sample being analysed in the UK come back," Bailey told reporters. "Once there was an irregularity, we were obligated to tell the trainer."

Racing Victoria Limited has confirmed that a Victorian trainer had been informed that blood samples from two horses had shown an irregularity for EPO. Laming has denied using the substance.

EPO, or recombinant human erythropoietin (rhEPO), increases endurance by boosting the number of oxygencarrying red blood cells. The drug made headlines in Britain in 2002 when the Jockey Club conducted well-publicised tests on the horses of several leading trainers and again in 2007, when several cyclists were banned from the Tour de France for competing under its influence.

The irregularity in the samples in Victoria was reported to the RVL by the Hong Kong Jockey Club Racing Laboratory, and the samples are now undergoing further analysis by the Horse Racing Forensic Laboratory in Britain.

Laming, who launched his partnership with his father last year, trains around 30 horses at a multi-million-dollar establishment at Cranbourne in the Melbourne suburbs, while his father heads an operation of 15 horses near Queensland's Gold Coast.

According to a report in Melbourne's Herald Sun on Monday, the blood samples in question were taken as part of out-ofcompetition testing conducted by stewards during a visit to Laming's property a fortnight ago.

Harness Racing Victoria also reported on Friday that it had found three positive tests for EPO under the harness-racing code.