LOWTHER ESCAPES PUNISHMENT Rider Carl Lowther escaped punishment from the Jockey Club`s Disciplinary Committee today despite testing positive for alcohol at a meeting last July. The jockey told the committee that the official supervising the testing at Newcastle racecourse had allowed him to have a couple of pints of shandy to help him give the required sample. Lowther had hoped for leniency from the stewards in London, given the mitigating circumstances. 'I tested positive, but never expected to be banned,' he said after the hearing. 'If the guy who is testing you says it is okay, then you expect to be able to believe him,' Lowther said. Lowther, 27, was the first jockey to test positive for alcohol in Britain since the tests were introduced in 1994. His agent Laura Way told Reuters: 'It was done in all innocence. Fortunately, it turned out all right for Carl, but this will stop it happening again.'
