Jamie Kah was ‘immature, irresponsible’, but white powder case dismissed

Jamie Kah will not face any penalties after footage of the star jockey cutting lines of white powder in her home in June was widely circulated.

The Victorian Racing Tribunal determined on Friday that while Kah had behaved recklessly on the night she was filmed with an illegal substance, she could not be charged for bringing the sport into disrepute as the jockey did not know she was being filmed.

Star Melbourne jockey Jamie Kah has had her case dismissedCredit: Twitter

Stewards charged both Kah and stable hand Ruby McIntyre with conduct prejudicial to racing after McIntyre recorded and circulated a six-second video, which showed Kah separating lines of white powder on a kitchen plate with an ID card on June 17th. Still shots of the video were published in the media six days later.

McIntyre was found guilty, with a penalty to be determined by the tribunal at a later date.

In handing down the decision, tribunal judge John Bowman said Kah’s behaviour was “immature, irresponsible, and at least bordering on reckless”.

But he said the question was whether that behaviour constituted a breach of the sport’s rules.

“We are not so satisfied,” the judge ruled.

The three-person tribunal came to that decision for two keys reasons. Firstly, Kah did not know the video had been taken, and secondly she did not know the footage had been circulated until it was published in the media six days later.

“We are of the opinion the charge to be dismissed, and that is the order we make,” the judge concluded.

The tribunal accepted Kah had not used any of the white powder. Asked why she separated the lines, the jockey had said: “I was trying to be a friendly host. I know it was not very appropriate … Yeah, I let [McIntyre] stay at my house, and I put the plate out for her, and put everything out there for her and poured out glasses of wine for them.”

Jamie Kah was found not to have brought racing into disrepute.Credit: Racing Photos via Getty Images

The tribunal heard over a two-day hearing that Kah had only met McIntyre around four hours earlier at a bar with a group of friends, and conceded she was “absolutely” ambitious trusting McIntyre.

She said she was more affected by alcohol than she would usually be when she, McIntyre and friend Jacob Biddell were in each other’s company at Kah’s home on June 17.

Bowman said while it may seem unlikely that Kah did not know the video was being recorded, without any evidence to challenge that assertion, they concluded Kah was filmed without consent or knowledge.

While her charge was dismissed, Bowman noted Kah was not completely credible in her evidence.

“There is a substantial difference in the amount of detail contained in the record of the original interview … when essentially you knew nothing about any white powder or what it might be; and the record of your second interview.”

It was during that second interview that Kah spoke about being a “friendly host” when she cut the lines.

Adding to the decision to dismiss the charge was because the event occurred in the privacy of Kah’s home, and that the behaviour had no link to racing, aside from the fact Kah and McIntyre are members of the racing industry.

Kah was contacted for comment.

In explaining why McIntyre’s actions were guilty of behaviour prejudicial to racing, Bowman said: “You deliberately took a short video of the powder and what Ms Kah was doing with it, without telling her and in a surreptitious fashion. Secondly, and very importantly, you sent both the group photo and the white powder photo onto another person.”

Thirdly, Bowman said, McIntyre put an “incriminating and identifying” caption alongside the photos when she sent the images.

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