Racing: Quakes give new view on dope case

Lance Justice and Smoken Up. Photo / Supplied

Australian horseman Lance Justice will put the most shattering experience of his life behind him to try to win today's $600,000 New Zealand Trotting Cup in Christchurch.

And he says being in the city so devastated by the February quake has given him the perspective to do so.

Justice trains and drives Smoken Up, who will start a hot favourite in today's great race at Addington, especially after enigmatic Kiwi pacing hero Auckland Reactor was forced out.

Auckland Reactor suffered a slight cut winning the major Cup lead-up race at Ashburton two weeks ago and it burst open again in track work yesterday, robbing him of his shot at the biggest win of his rollercoaster career.

But Justice has been on an even more turbulent emotional rollercoaster, finding out just last week that Smoken Up will be disqualified from the $800,000 Interdominion Final he won at Alexandra Park in April.

Smoken Up will lose that race because he returned a positive test to the drug DMSO, even though Justice swears he has never used the substance and Smoken Up has smashed records all over Australasia without it.

While horse trainers with a positive drug test claiming innocence are nothing new in racing, the panel that declared Smoken Up will lose the race went out of their way to admit there was no proof Justice was guilty of, or knew of, any drug administration.

So that decision will become the centre of legal appeals and Justice says he will put it to the back of his mind when Smoken Up rolls on to the Addington track at 5.05pm.

"I was gutted by last week's decision, still am, but I can't think about it going into this race," he said.

"I can't go out there angry even though I think we have been wronged because that will cloud my judgment and I could make a mistake. The courts will take care of the drug case, I am here to take care of the Cup."

Smoken Up is an equine steamroller and deserves to start favourite today, particularly as the local open-class crop is far from vintage.

And Justice is making no secret of his tactics.

"At some stage I will be going to the front and taking no prisoners."

If he does win Justice says he won't be making any "take that" statements at the post-race presentations.

"Sometimes things in life don't go your way and when you are in Canterbury and see how many people have died or had their lives terribly affected by the earthquakes you realise life is too short to walk around angry.

"I am here to win the Cup and if we do that we will have made our point."

Smoken Up's arch-rival Monkey King, who has beaten him in the past two Cups, lines up again today, trying to become only the third horse to win the race three times in its 107-year history.

By Michael Guerin