FOUR top jockeys who were fined last week for breaching COVID-19 restrictions have been suspended by Racing Victoria for the Spring Racing Carnival.
Leading jockeys Jamie Kah and Ben Melham, who were scheduled to ride in the Group 1 Menzies Stakes at Mornington last Saturday, as well as Ethan Brown and Celine Gaudray, were nabbed after a complaint about a “noisy party” at a property in Tallis Drive, midnight Wednesday 25 August.
On Saturday stewards also hit a fifth jockey, Mark Zahra, with a three-month ban for attending the party.
Senior Sergeant Kirby Tonkin, of Mornington police, said six people at a four-bedroom Airbnb rental with a pool and spa had each been fined $5452 for breaching the Chief Health Officer’s directions, which included breaking the 9pm curfew and being outside the five-kilometre limit.
He said the property owner “had been spoken to and exonerated” because of information she had received and would be taking the home off the short-stay market.
Mornington Peninsula Local Area Commander Inspector Terry Rowlands said police had also issued four fines of $10,900 each to owners of short stay rentals at Mornington, Rye, Rosebud and Sorrento over the past week for renting their premises to people breaching regulations.
“I’d like to remind everyone that police will be issuing fines to those who choose to flout the current direction of the Chief Health Officer,” he said.
First published in the Southern Peninsula News – 31 August 2021
