Six Week Ban For Sadler

Group 1 winning trainer John Sadler has had his training license suspended for six weeks by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board over his conduct during an altercation with Racing Victoria stewards in November. The altercation arose out of the stewards' decision to scratch the Sadler trained Observational (GB) (Galileo {Ire}) from his intended start in the G3 Eclipse S. at Sandown on the morning of the race Nov. 18 as they found it was likely that the horse had been illegally treated with bi-carb within the 24-hour withholding period. Sadler denied breaching the withholding period which subsequently lead to flared tempers with RAD chairman John Bowman describing the trainer's behaviour to both chief steward Terry Bailey and his deputy Robert Cram as both 'nasty' and 'improper' from a long-standing member of the racing industry. Sadler whose ban will commence Dec. 25 and run until Feb. 5 claims to have fallen out of love with the game and believed his horses were being targeted excessively by stewards for pre-race testing.