THREE DOWNS JOCKEYS FAIL DRUG TEST

Three Assiniboia Downs jockeys -- including the track's all-time winningest
rider -- tested positive for drugs over the weekend.

But after being forced from their mounts and escorted off the track grounds
by security Saturday evening, two of the three jockeys who tested positive
- -- veteran Ken Hendricks and Doug Jones -- were back riding yesterday as
though nothing had happened. A third rider who tested positive on Friday,
newly arrived Samuel Shirley, remained off his mounts yesterday, however.

The Free Press learned yesterday that Hendricks and Jones tested positive
after taking codeine-based medications.

The controversy begged for an explanation from the Manitoba Horse Racing
Commission, as rumours of drug use in the jockeys' colony swirled around
the track yesterday and track management demanded answers.

But instead of coming clean to the betting public, MHRC officials literally
ran for cover yesterday. In one episode, Murray Kull, the MHRC's director
of security, interrupted an interview with the Free Press to step outside
and make a cellphone call to his boss, MHRC executive director Larry Huber.

But instead of returning to continue the interview as promised, Kull used
the opportunity to leave the building and never return, offering no
explanation for his sudden disappearance. The Free Press was asking general
questions about the administration of the MHRC's drug-testing program when
Kull stepped outside. Kull oversees the program as security director.

The Free Press wasn't the only one demanding -- and not getting -- answers
from the MHRC yesterday.

The Manitoba Jockey Club was also demanding the MHRC come clean with what
happened -- for the sake of Hendricks, Jones and Shirley, and in the
broader interest of the track's patrons.

"This is craziness," said MJC president Harvey Warner. "One day, they're
taking guys off their mounts and escorting them off the track with security.

"And then the next day, they've got these riders back riding as though
nothing happened? It's totally unfair. There's a cloud hanging over these
guys, there's all kinds of rumours going around and it's a disservice to
these guys and our customers.

"We're in the gaming business -- we have to be clean and we have to be open
with everyone. And lately, through no fault of our own, it's been the
opposite of that." It's the second time in less than a week that the MHRC
has gone underground at the first sign of controversy. Last Tuesday, the
MHRC's stewards mistakenly posted the wrong results for a race and then
didn't tell anyone about it, leaving bettors to tear up winning tickets for
at least a half-hour Tuesday night before a federal government official
finally intervened and told Downs management of the blunder so that a
public announcement could be made.

This time, it appears the MHRC might have prematurely pulled Hendricks and
Jones from their mounts when the two men failed a drug test Saturday evening.

The MHRC administers random drug tests to jockeys prior to the start of
live racing cards. Before he disappeared yesterday, Kull said the MHRC
tests for opiates, cocaine, marijuana, PCP and methamphetamine.

Contacted by the Free Press yesterday, Jones admitted he tested positive
for opiates, but said he'd explained to the MHRC even before the test was
conducted Saturday evening that he's taking codeine-based Tylenol 3's -- on
a doctor's orders -- for a sore ankle. Codeine is an opiate.

Hendricks is also believed to have tested positive for a codeine-based
medication, but he refused to comment.

Jones said he even showed an MHRC official his pill bottle prior to the
positive test on Saturday. "I've got a fused ankle. I've had five
surgeries," he said. "I wasn't trying to hide anything."

He said the problem is that the instant test jockeys are given prior to
racing cards doesn't determine what kind of opiate is present in a jockey's
bloodstream.

Jones said he was allowed to resume riding yesterday while a more detailed
test is performed by a laboratory in Edmonton. If that test comes back
showing Jones tested positive for codeine instead of another opiate -- say,
heroin -- he said he believes he will be exonerated and allowed to continue
riding.

"The problem's with the test," Jones said. Warner agreed: "If this test
can't tell the difference (between codeine and heroin), then they need to
get another test."

With the MHRC declining comment and running for cover yesterday, it wasn't
immediately clear what Shirley tested positive for or why he was still
suspended yesterday while the other two jockeys were allowed to resume riding.

The suspensions, plus a spate of unrelated recent injuries to jockeys,
caused headaches for the Downs. In one instance, a horse named Brass Tiger
went through three jockeys -- Shirley, then Jones and finally Beth Butler
- -- before he finally ran in Saturday's eighth race.

And the ninth race for quarter-horses Saturday evening went off with just
three horses, thanks in part to scratches forced by the suspensions of
Jones and Shirley.