DNA analysis and a syringe with urine: Track rider’s bid to avoid ban, and how it unravelled

A Cranbourne track rider central to the Jamie Melham “white powder” picture scandal has been disqualified for 12 months for using a syringe filled with his friends’ urine in a bid to dupe Racing Victoria drug testers.

Jacob Biddell, who turns 27 on Friday and is also a greyhound trainer, hid the syringe behind his belt buckle and used it as a substitute on the days he was riding track work because he was “fearful” of testing positive to cannabis, the Victorian Racing Tribunal heard on Tuesday.

An image from a social media post of Jacob Biddell, top right, and Jamie Melham (nee Kah), bottom.Credit: X

He gave two false samples at Cranbourne on May 21 last year as well as a third on October 3.

A DNA analysis revealed the October sample was from three individual profiles, and did not match the urine he provided in May.

As a result, Racing Victoria stewards approached Biddell on March 7 this year and a subsequent test was 79 times over the legal cannabis threshold for jockeys and track riders, the tribunal heard.

Biddell told stewards that he had taken two medicated edibles, or prescribed cannabis, before the test.

Stewards disqualified Biddell for 18 months after he pleaded guilty to three racing industry charges of substituting a sample and one charge of testing positive, but the penalty was reduced to 12 months on appeal by the VRT, starting on Tuesday.

In June 2023, Biddell was pictured in a six-second video sitting alongside Melham, then Jamie Kah, and stable hand Ruby McIntyre as the leading jockey separated white powder on a kitchen plate with an ID card. Still shots of the video, which was taken and circulated by McIntyre, were published in the media six days later.

The Victorian Racing Tribunal determined in December 2023 that Melham could not be charged for bringing the sport into disrepute because she did not know she was being filmed.

McIntyre was outed for two months by the VRT for her part in the scandal, while Biddell received a conditional, suspended one-month ban from the Greyhound Racing Victoria Integrity Unit. He did not face Racing Victoria charges.

Jacob Biddell is a greyhound trainer who used to ride track work.Credit: Twitter

Biddell told the Australian Racing Greyhound website in June 2022 that he had met Melham in Adelaide as a teenager, and she had convinced him to move to Melbourne.

“I told her I was thinking about giving greyhound training a go, and she said if I was interested I was more than welcome to go and live with her and train them on her property,” he said.

Barrister Matthew Stirling, acting for Biddell, told the tribunal on Tuesday his client had fractured his T10 (10th vertebra) five years ago in a serious track fall and had experienced back pain ever since.

Stirling said Biddell had “resorted to occasional marijuana use, literally to help him to sleep and to relieve the pain”.

“Yes, what he did by substituting the urine sample was dishonest, and it was serious, but he simply did it to keep his job and keep in work,” Stirling said.

“He wasn’t coping mentally, and he wasn’t coping with his physical pain, and he took cannabis to relieve the pain and to mask the pain.”

Biddell is now prescribed medicinal cannabis through a registered clinic, the tribunal heard.

In a letter read to the tribunal, Biddell said he regretted his serious breach of the rules.

“At the time of the offence, I was under significant financial and emotional pressure,” Biddell wrote.

“I was in position where if I lost my ability to work, I would have had no income and no way to cover rent or meet my basic responsibilities for myself or the animals in my care.

“I felt trapped and made a desperate decision, hoping to buy enough time to stay afloat. It was the wrong choice and I take full accountability.”

Trainers Lucy Yeomans and Mark Webb provided character references for Biddell, saying he was hardworking, a natural horseman and had never shown up to work under the influence of drugs or alcohol.

Tribunal chairman Judge John Bowman, sitting alongside panel members Des Gleeson and Judy Bourke, said by substituting urine samples, Biddell had shown a “willful deceit” of an important safety and welfare rule.

“We take into account that you have some physical and painful upper-body symptoms originating from a fall some years ago, and that the use of marijuana or products containing marijuana are related to this,” Bowman said.

“It does not, however, justify the taking of marijuana, much less at the very high level that occurred in this case.

“Random testing is important to the welfare of racing, its image and the safety of its participants.”

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