28 February 2024 , 12:37
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The stablehand who filmed the video which showed top jockey Jamie Kah next to lines of an unknown white powder has been punished.
Ruby McIntyre was suspended for three months when the final chapter of the case concluded on Wednesday. One month of the sentence and a £385 fine were suspended for two years by a racing tribunal in Victoria, Australia.
Kah, Australia’s top female rider, was recovering from a serious brain injury, sustained in a fall, when photos emerged in June last year of her and two friends sitting around a grey plate on a table at a private gathering.
In one picture, Kah's hand appeared to be using a plastic card to split a mound of white powder on that plate. There was also a bag containing white power next to the plate on the kitchen top.
Kah and McIntyre were charged with conduct prejudicial to racing by Victoria stewards after the controversial footage was shared. Kah was cleared in December last year but McIntyre, who denied the charge, was found guilty.
McIntyre, according to , represented herself at her penalty hearing and acknowledged she "made a mistake trusting the one person" to whom she sent the video of Kah, which was subsequently leaked.
"Everyone that knows me knows I don't do that sort of thing," she told the tribunal. "It's not my morals. It's not my character. If I was to know that would happen, I would never have done it."
Jamie Kah at the private gathering which triggered the inquiry (Social Media)Following the saga, Kah is attempting to move on with her life and, earlier this month, announced her engagement. Kah, 28, chose Valentine’s Day to declare that she and Ben Melham, another of the leading jockeys in Melbourne, Australia would be getting hitched.
In a post on her Instagram account featuring a photo of the happy couple, she wrote, “Through everything you’ve been by my side from the very start, here’s to forever and always,” alongside a kiss and an emoji of a ring.
Kah has ridden more than 1,200 winners, including nine at Group 1 level, and in 2021 became the first jockey to ride 100 metropolitan winners in Melbourne.
Her career stalled last year when she was seriously injured in an horrific fall during a race at Flemington in March. She suffered a brain injury, broke several bones and spent a number of days in an induced coma. She had a long-lasting concussion and was not declared fit to ride again for five months.