Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh vows to clear name over swab irregularity

Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh has vowed to clear his name after one his horses allegedly returned a positive swab.

Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh has vowed to clear his name after being directed to attend a stewards’ inquiry due to a swab irregularity in one of his horses.

Walsh trains the hot favourite Hell in a 1200m Open Handicap at Eagle Farm on Saturday, an apt name for his four-year-old gelding given the cloud that hangs over the young trainer.

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Stewards will allege at an inquiry to be held in the coming months that one of Walsh’s horses returned the presence of anabolic steroid Stanozolol in out-of-competition testing.

Hell is not the horse under question for the stewards’ inquiry.

“If I lose my licence it’s my main source of income, and obviously it’s not a great look,” said Walsh, who boasts a superb training strike rate of 33 per cent (155 winners).

“We’ve got six or seven people employed – trucks, cars, floats, owners – and it could all get cut down from underneath you.

“Some nights you can’t get to sleep just thinking about it and it gets you down, it really does.

“It’s in the hands of my solicitor but we won’t go down without a fight.”

Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh is fighting to clear his name.

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In the meantime, Walsh is hoping Hell can secure his eighth victory in his 16th start at Eagle Farm on Saturday on a track rated a Heavy 8 on Friday morning.

Walsh said he had used a 1050m race at Rockhampton on March 15 as a “barrier trial” to prepare Hell for Saturday’s assignment at Eagle Farm.

“He’s a big gross horse so we elected to get a run under his belt rather than trial him,” Walsh said of Hell’s last-start victory in his home town.

“All his data since then has come back really good and he’s very similar to last prep when we were taking him down there (to Brisbane).

“He’s got a significant drop in weight although it’s a rise in class so this will be a good test for him.”

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Walsh will be hoping the track improves over the next 24 hours given that Hell finished seventh out of nine runners on a Heavy 10 at Eagle Farm on Christmas Eve.

“He didn’t handle the track one bit,” Walsh said.

“I reckon he’ll handle a (Soft) 6 or 7 but anything worse than that, I won’t be starting him.”

Top apprentice Emily Lang, who is leading the Brisbane metro jockeys’ premiership race on 49 wins, will ride Hell, who is a $2.80 favourite with TAB for Saturday’s final race on the card.

Tony Gollan’s pair King Kapa ($5.50) and Comrade Rosa ($8), who were scratched from last week’s $750,000 King Of The Mountain slot race at Toowoomba due to a heavy track, are also well fancied in the market.

Originally published as Rockhampton trainer Nick Walsh vows to clear name over swab irregularity