WODONGA trainer Craig Widdison has been informed by Racing Victoria stewards one of his horses has returned a positive swab from Sandown.
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Stewards received a report from Racing Analytical Services Limited which had detected an elevated bi-carb (TCO2) reading from five-year-old gelding Cash Crisis.
Cash Crisis finished sixth in the $50,000 Benchmark 70 Hcp, (1300m) won by Brave Tango at Sandown Lakeside on February 6.
The five-year-old gelding was a $61-chance and was ridden by Chelsea MacFarlane.
RASL reported that the blood sample was shown to contain a total carbon dioxide (TCO2) at concentration in excess of 36.0 millimoles per litre in plasma and therefore a prohibited substance in accordance with the Australian Rules of Racing.
Widdison politely declined to comment when contacted by The Border Mailon Tuesday other than to say stewards informed him of the confirmatory findings on Monday.
Stewards are continuing their investigation.
After four years in a training partnership with Peter Morgan at Whittlesea, Widdison returned home to Wodonga at the start of 2017.
Previously he also spent time under disgraced trainer Robert Smerdon who was banned for life last year for the systematic doping of horses.
He also had stints with Kevin Prendergast in Ireland, Tony Vasil, Terry Kelly and Roger Hoysted before going into partnership with Morgan.
The best success for the training partnership came with Star Rolling and Oasis Bloom, winning Group 2 races, and the mare Eloping, a multiple black type-winning mare.
Widdison has since stamped himself as one of the premier trainers on the Border.
He scored his first metropolitan success as a solo trainer at Sandown with Willi Willi in April 2017.
Willi Willi then handed the young trainer his biggest success of his career when he saluted in the $180,000 Albury Gold Cup last year.
Willi Willi ran third in a trial at Wodonga on on Tuesday morning with Widdison hopeful of targeting back-to-back Albury Cups with his stable star.
The galloper is owned by John and Helen McPhee who are the biggest stable supporters of Widdison.
Cash Crisis is also targeting the Albury Carnival after winning the $50,000 City Handicap last year.
The five-year-old gelding is being set for the same race again on March 21.
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