Norton handed four month race-riding ban. Flat jockey Francis Norton has been handed a four month ban from race-riding by the Jockey Club following a failed drug test in September 2002.The process which brought Norton in front of the Jockey Club's Disciplinary Panel took fifteen month but finally handed him the ban at a hearing at Portman Square yesterday. Norton is the third rider to test positive for cocaine since the Jockey Club's testing policy began in October 1984. Norton has been closely associated with trainer Alan Berry and has partnered the winners of the Ebor, Cambridgeshire, Northumberland Plate and Britannia Handicap in his career.The lightweight rider will have to be passed fit by the Jockey Club's chief medical adviser when he is due to recommence riding on April 19.
