Horse racing trainer is hit with five-year ban from the sport for a VERY rude incident involving a track official’s pants

Horse racing trainer Todd Balfour has been banned from the sport for five years for pulling down a Racing South Australia Compliance Official’s pants earlier this year. 

The former trainer was accused of ‘dacking’ the official and exposing him in front of a crowd of people at the Kangaroo Island racecourse in February. 

Balfour admitted to engaging in improper conduct when he pulled down the officer’s pants during breathalyser tests.

The maximum penalty for the act was 10 years, but Balfour’s 57 wins from 697 runners between 2010 and 2017 as a trainer and a brief career as a jumps jockey along with his confession and apology to the officer saw him receive the more lenient penalty. 

Balfour also had a short career as a jockey before becoming a successful trainer between 2010 and 2017

Balfour won 57 races as a trainer but is now barred from having any involvement in the racing industry for five years

Balfour admitted breaking the Australian rules of racing, specifically for engaging in misconduct, improper conduct, and unseemly behavior. 

The report described his actions as ‘reprehensible and highly inappropriate’. 

Unnamed sources told the Sydney Morning Herald that Balfour informed the inquiry that he had no recollection of lowering the pants of the integrity official following alcohol consumption at the race meeting.

‘Stewards also had regard for his fort rightness at the inquiry, his longstanding involvement in the industry, his personal circumstances and the fact that he showed remorse for his conduct which included an apology to the Racing SA compliance officer,’ the stewards report stated.

‘However, stewards also considered the serious nature of the conduct, the resultant distress caused to an official, and that objectively viewed, by any reasonable person, such conduct would be considered reprehensible and extremely inappropriate.

‘Stewards also had regard for individual and general deterrence and further had regard for the fact that punishment is also an element in determining penalty for breaches of the rules of racing.’

Despite the admission of guilt, Balfour is expected to appeal the penalty.