It has been a tough few weeks for Balcairn’s Don and Peggy Burrows but the weekend could bring some relief and good news.
Don, a trainer, was fined $9000 as a result of positive swabs to Kavain returned by Lightworkofit after his two wins at Addington in February and an appeal against the severity of the penalty was heard yesterday.
The case is a double whammy – as well as the fine, the Burrows’ also lost over $10,000 in stakes from the two wins.
A 25% discount has already been applied to the penalty for Burrows’ clean slate over 40-odd years of training, but Burrows is hoping to have the fine halved again.
How Kavain came to be in the system of Lightworkofit remains a complete mystery to Burrows and the investigators.
“I’d never heard of it before and it goes by many different names,” said Burrows.
“Nothing has really changed to what we’ve given the horse since he began racing over two years ago so why it showed up then is beyond us.
“It’s been mystifying and it’s been a very difficult time for both us.
“I’m a pensioner now and just a hobby trainer and it’s been a severe financial hit.”
There has been a silver lining to the big, black cloud however.
As a result of the disqualifications this month, Lightworkofit has been reassessed to an R50 trotter and has been able to drop into a race at Addington on Saturday which looks tailormade for him.
While he is officially a four-win horse, Lightworkofit has won six races from 46 starts and is racing against mostly one-win trotters, with some two-win horses and Rusty I Am the only three-win trotter.
The latter’s wins have been well spaced over two-and-a-half years and have been on grass tracks.
Dexter Dunn has driven Lightworkofit in three of his last four wins and is back on to guide the free-going veteran from barrier two over his pet distance of 1950m mobile.
They will undoubtedly lead, with their biggest threat likely to come from the filly One Over Da Skye, who has drawn wide in post seven.
Lightworkofit reached a Rating 63 when he won at Addington on February 23, leading all the way from post one in a smart 3.17 for 2600m mobile, and he subsequently raced in much tougher fields with a view to reducing his rating.
This included a free-for-all won by Bordeaux and a race at Addington won by McLovin over Arnold along with less-than-ideal standing starts.
It enabled Lightworkofit to drop into a R52-58 standing start race at Addington a month ago, where Dunn was able to get the cranky 12-year-old away from the unruly mark and they led them all the way again.
So, this week is a significant drop in class as a result of the subsequent disqualifications, and with a 50 rating Burrows said Lightworkofit is effectively “starting all over again”.
“You can never be overly confident with him but he should go pretty well I think this week.
“We’ll keep going with him over the winter as after the Jewels a lot of the good horses will go for a spell.
“Like us he’s not getting any younger, and if you spell him it just takes too long to get him back, so he’ll stay in light work for the remaining of his racing days.”
