Non Raceday Inquiry – NZTR v JL Waddell 26 October 2009 decision

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hearing_title: Non Raceday Inquiry - NZTR v JL Waddell 26 October 2009 decision

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IN THE MATTER OF     THE NZ RULES OF RACING

BETWEEN                      BF McKENZIE
                                          INFORMANT – NZTR

AND                                  JL WADDELL

                                          LICENSED RIDER
                                          DEFENDANT

HEARING                        WAIKATO RACING CLUB
                                          MONDAY 26 OCTOBER 2009

NON – RACEDAY JUDICIAL COMMITTEE           RM SEABROOK (Chairman)
                                                                                      DC JOHNSTONE

PRESENT                                                                   BF McKENZIE    NZTR
                                                                                      JW McKENZIE   NZTR
                                                                                      JL WADDELL    DEFENDANT  
                                                                                      FW RITCHIE - ADVOCATE

The Defendant appeared before the Judicial Committee on a charge of misconduct as set out in information 6843. That charge read

That on  Saturday the 17th day of October 2009 at Arawa Park Racecourse, Rotorua, in the sponsors’ room at the race meeting being conducted by Racing Rotorua you did misconduct yourself in a matter relating to the conduct of racing IN THAT you did use insulting, offensive and obscene language directed at Mr John Lloyd the President of Racing Rotorua namely the words as set out in the charge AND THAT you are thereby liable to the penalties which may be imposed upon you pursuant to Rile 803  of the said Rules

IN THE MATTER OF     THE NZ RULES OF RACING

BETWEEN                         BF McKENZIE
                                             INFORMANT – NZTR

AND                                    JL WADDELL

                                            LICENSED RIDER
                                            DEFENDANT

HEARING                           WAIKATO RACING CLUB
                                             MONDAY 26 OCTOBER 2009

NON – RACEDAY JUDICIAL COMMITTEE         RM SEABROOK (Chairman)
                                                                                    DC JOHNSTONE

PRESENT                                                                  BF McKENZIE    NZTR
                                                                                    JW McKENZIE   NZTR
                                                                                    JL WADDELL    DEFENDANT 
                                                                                     FW RITCHIE - ADVOCATE

The Defendant appeared before the Judicial Committee on a charge of misconduct as set out in information 6843. That charge read

That on  Saturday the 17th day of October 2009 at Arawa Park Racecourse, Rotorua, in the sponsors’ room at the race meeting being conducted by Racing Rotorua you did misconduct yourself in a matter relating to the conduct of racing IN THAT you did use insulting, offensive and obscene language directed at Mr John Lloyd the President of Racing Rotorua namely the words as set out in the charge AND THAT you are thereby liable to the penalties which may be imposed upon you pursuant to Rile 803  of the said Rules

The Defendant pleaded guilty to the charge.

The authority from the Chief Executive of NZTR to file the information was produced.

NZTR presented a summary of the facts which read:

1.  On Saturday 17 October 2009 Racing Rotorua conducted a race meeting at the Arawa Park Racecourse.

2.  The Defendant Jason Waddell who is a licensed rider rode at the meeting. His final ride on the day was in Race 6.

3.  At this meeting Racing Rotorua operated a sponsor’s room in the grandstand. This room, which as the name suggested, catered for sponsors’ at the club on that day. Entry was by special ticket only. In that room free drinks and food were part of those arrangements.

4.  The sponsor’s room and its control and conduct were strictly under control of the Racing Rotorua Club. The Club committee and its officials had absolute control and conduct within this room, and also to determine who was eligible to be in the room during the race meeting.

5. At a time shortly after the running of Race 8 on the programme, which was run at 4.10pm, both the President of the Club, Mr John Lloyd, and his Vice President Mr Tony Spain were present in the room. Both men wore their respective clubs badges identifying their position in the Club.

6.  Jockeys Jason Waddell (the Defendant) and Chad Ormsby were observed by Messrs. Lloyd and Spain to have entered the sponsor’s room. Neither had a sponsor’s room entry ticket affixed to their person as required.

7.  Mr Lloyd was aware that neither jockey should have been present in the room and Mr Spain and he approached the two and it was explained to them that they were not permitted to be there and they were asked to leave.

8.  The Defendant in particular chose to try and argue the point with Messrs Lloyd and Spain. The Defendant told Mr Lloyd that the Stewards had told them they could be in the room. Mr Lloyd was aware such a claim could not be true. When it was clear that he had to go, the Defendant made a remark to them to the effect “that next time it rains here at Rotorua, he would see the jockeys would call the meeting off”.

9.  The President responded to that comment with a remark querying the professionalism of jockeys.

10.  The defendant then directed at the President in a loud and aggressive voice the words as set out in the charge.

11.  This abuse directed at Mr Lloyd was clearly heard by him and Mr Spain and also at least one of the Club’s sponsors of the day, who immediately expressed his concern to Mr Lloyd as to what had verbally been directed at him by this Defendant.

12.  The President and his Vice President went immediately to the Judicial Room and reported the matter to NZTR officials. Both of the club office holders were clearly shocked and upset at the abuse by the Defendant.

13.  The matter had also been reported to the Race Day Secretary Mr Dave Taylor, who is the President of the NZ Jockeys Association. He also expressed his dismay and anger at not only what this Defendant had called the President but also the threat to call some future meeting off.

14. Officials attempted to locate the Defendant. He had left the racecourse. He was telephoned by Bryan McKenzie but did not answer his mobile phone. Three messages were left with him but he did not call Mr McKenzie until 3pm the following day after his rider’s agent had been phoned and told the Defendant should call the Investigator.

15. By arrangement Bryan McKenzie met with the Defendant at his residence in Cambridge at 9am on the 20th October 2009.

16.  When asked for an explanation, the Defendant said he did not know Mr Lloyd was the President. He claimed Mr Lloyd was rude to him. He claimed he had been invited to the room by a friend. He admitted he did not have a ticket to be in the room.  

17  The Defendant stated that after he had been asked to leave, he made the comment to Mr Lloyd about “ calling the meeting off if it rained”. He admitted he had called Mr Lloyd the words as set out in the charge. He said he should not have said that to Mr Lloyd.

18.  He told Bryan McKenzie, that he was under a lot of pressure at the time, what with his weight and financial stress and was about to lose his home in Matamata due to financial pressures. He said he felt he was being picked on by NZTR and others over this matter.

19,  The Defendant is a single man aged 23 years. He currently resides in a rented house in Cambridge along with his sister.

20.  The Defendant has several appearances before the JCA in NZ for misconduct charges. A copy of his record is produced.

21.  The Committee are asked to note that in 2005 whilst riding in Singapore, he was suspended for two months for a serious offence involving conduct.

22.  On 1/4/06 in NZ he was suspended for one month and ordered to pay a total of $1,000 in fine and costs on a misconduct charge. This related to a matter in a race after the horses had passed the finishing post and he deliberately rode his horse into a fellow rider’s horse and into the running rail.. He had believed that this rider had caused interference to him during the race.

23.  On the 18/4/06, he was fined $1000 and $200 in costs on a misconduct charge. This relates to a charge with three other apprentices and involved the unlawful interference of a motor vehicle owned by a female apprentice. This Defendant was an accomplice as opposed to a principal offender in this matter hence the fine as opposed to  the suspension of the others.

24.  On the 10/12/07, he was fined $200 on a misconduct charge relating to the use of offensive language at the Clerk of the Course. 

Mr F Ritchie, licensed trainer, who appeared for Mr Waddell, said that Mr Waddell had been riding for 18 of the previous 23 days prior to the Rotorua meeting. He said that in the past when Mr Waddell had been wasting he had been inclined to have anger problems. Mr Ritchie said that Mr Waddell now accepts that he has a problem and has agreed to attend anger management counselling. He will also apologise to Mr Lloyd, the President of the Rotorua Racing Club.

PENALTY SUBMISSIONS

Mr BF McKenzie made submissions on penalty.

He submitted that the starting point for a penalty given the seriousness of that abuse directed at the President and also taking into account the previous record of the Defendant was that of disqualification for a short sharp period of time. He said this was a case of deplorable and disgraceful conduct. Mr McKenzie said Mr Lloyd was held in high esteem, and was embarrassed by Mr Waddell’s verbal abuse. He said that Mr Waddell should have left the room immediately when asked to by the President. Mr McKenzie said that Waddell’s record was not good under this rule with this being his 5th charge. In reference to Mr Waddell’s threat to call off a race meeting in the future Mr McKenzie said this was a very dangerous statement however he said that Mr Waddell had neither the ability nor manna to succeed with this threat. Mr McKenzie said Mr Lloyd had spoken to him and said that while Mr Waddell had to face up to his actions he did not wish to see him receive a hard financial penalty.

Mr McKenzie submitted to the Committee that both the deterrent aspect and also the rehabilitation of the defendant were important issues to be addressed in approaching an appropriate penalty. `

Mr Ritchie asked that the Committee consider Mr Waddell’s guilty plea and that he was going to attend an anger management course. He said that a period of disqualification would have an impact not only on his finances but also on his weight control and therefore his future in racing He added that Mr Waddell had some very good mounts at the NZ Cup Carnival in November which he asked the committee to consider. He concluded by saying that Mr Waddell had now accepted that he had a problem which had not always been the case.

PENALTY

The Committee has carefully considered all the evidence and submissions as presented. There is absolutely no place in the Racing Industry for the behaviour displayed at Rotorua. The Committee also view seriously the threat made by Mr Waddell to call off a future race meeting.

In assessing penalty we are very mindful that a deterrent element should be included. Mr McKenzie submitted that a starting point should be a short sharp period of disqualification. The committee agrees with this submission. However in mitigation we must consider Mr Waddell’s guilty plea, his obvious and genuine remorse and his acceptance that he has an anger problem. The Committee notes he has volunteered to attend an anger management course which Mr Ritchie has agreed to oversee.

The Committee accepts Mr Ritchie’s submissions that a disqualification could have a serious affect on Mr Waddell’s continued riding career. In considering these mitigating factors we must not lose sight of the seriousness of the offence. This type of behaviour cannot be condoned in any way.

Another aggravating factor we must consider is that this is Mr Waddell’s 5th charge of misconduct.

After taking into account all the above factors including the status of upcoming races that will be missed the Committee impose a suspension on Mr Waddell from race riding which commences after the conclusion of racing today, 26 October 2009, up to and including 6 December 2009 – 6 weeks.

The Committee would expect that any further breach of this rule by Mr Waddell will lead to a period of disqualification.

RM Seabrook          DC Johnstone
Chairman     

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