Canberra club backs debate on steroid ban - Canberra Times - The Canberra Times

Canberra Racing Club has welcomed a discussion on the use of anabolic steroids in the racing industry, because anything that could affect the integrity of racing needed to be considered carefully.

Steroids are banned in competition in Australia, but are allowed at other times - such as when a horse is out of training - as long as they are out of the horse's system by race day.

But the banning of 11 Godolphin horses in Britain has led to the debate of whether Australia's rules need to be changed to fall in line with Europe and Japan, where steroids are banned at all times.

Racing Victoria said on Saturday it would raise a possible blanket ban with the Australian Racing Board.

Canberra Racing chief executive Peter Stubbs is one of two ACT representatives on the ARB and he thought veterinary advice would play a large part in a final decision. Trainers would also need to be consulted.

''I think it would be prudent to take the advice from the professionals that study in the veterinary area and get their advice,'' Stubbs said on Sunday.

''I wouldn't want to speculate on [what the final decision might be] at this point, I think it should be properly considered before I offer an opinion.

''When anything arises within the industry that's important and could have ramifications on the industry, [they] certainly need to be discussed.

''That's not a knee-jerk reaction, a knee-jerk reaction is only when a decision is made without proper consideration.''

A change would mean out-of-competition testing would be needed, which would bring additional costs to the industry.

But Stubbs said racing's integrity was paramount and the industry would bear additional costs to ensure integrity was maintained.

''The racing industry's always taken the view that integrity is the most important thing for our industry to prosper and survive,'' he said.

''The cost in most integrity issues has always been irrelevant.''

The next scheduled meeting of the ARB isn't until June and Stubbs was unsure of how advanced any investigations into a possible total ban of steroids would be by then.