This was published 9 years ago
Leigh Roche outed for five weeks
AAP
Visiting Irish jockey Leigh Roche has been hit with a five-week ban for his handling of a horse in a race at Randwick.
Roche arrived in Australia in November for a three-month stint, basing himself with trainer Chris Waller at Rosehill.
At an inquiry on Thursday, Racing NSW stewards outed the 24-year-old for failing to take all reasonable and permissible measures to ensure the Bjorn Baker-trained Zatopaz gained the best position in a 2400m-race on January 14.
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Stewards said Roche had made too much use of Zatopaz several times during the race and the horse was forced to cover extra ground.
A tiring Zatopaz eventually finished seventh of the nine runners.
Roche was outed from Sunday until March 12.