Norton plans not to appeal

Francis Norton, the jockey suspended on Thursday for failing a drugs test, will not appeal against his ban it has been announced.

The rider tested positive for a metabolite of cocaine on September 26, 2002, when visited at home by a team from UK Sport, the company responsible for drug testing in racing at the time.

“He will not be appealing, because at the end of the day it is a strict liability offence and there would be the costs and the stress of having the case hanging over his head,” Norton’s solicitor, Christopher Stewart-Moore, told the Racing Post.

“However, he has been advised that if he did appeal it would be successful, given that there is no threshold for cocaine in racing and that his reading was below that which would lead to action in any other workplace.”

Norton’s ban runs from December 19 until April 19, 2004