Harris on drug charge

In trouble: Troy Harris.

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THE ROLLERCOASTER career of jockey Troy Harris has hit another bump after he tried to smuggle a urine sample in his clothing for a drug test at the Matamata races.

Harris, 21, now faces a lengthy and potentially career-ending disqualification, given he has waged a long battle against rising weight.

Harris was one of 12 riders tested at the South Waikato meeting last Wednesday in a continued campaign by New Zealand Thoroughbred Racing against drug abuse by jockeys.

NZTR staff discovered Harris attempting to conceal a container holding urine in the testing bay, Sunday Star-Times' investigations have revealed.

Harris, whose licence has been withdrawn, will face a Serious Racing Offence charge at a judicial hearing on March 30.

It is the same urine trick which fellow jockey Bruce Herd used in 2008, which later saw him disqualified for 15 months, a penalty he has only just finished serving. Herd's accomplice, fellow rider Opie Bosson, who provided Herd with his own sample, was put out for four months.

Harris, son of top jockey Noel Harris, is looking at an even longer ban than Herd, who had a clean drug record, given he has already been outed once before.

In February last year, Harris was disqualified for three months after returning a positive test to cannabis the same day he rode Te Akau Rose to win the Group II Matamata Breeders' Stakes.

Harris said at the time the cannabis ban was the result of "a silly weekend thing" rather than any more substantial use of the drug.

As an apprentice, Harris was banned for six weeks for text bullying and letting down the car tyres of another rider.

Harris, widely tipped to reach the top, rode 50 winners last season, but this term is only on 11.

- © Fairfax NZ News