By: Chris Roots

Premier trainer Chris Waller was fined $30,000 by Racing NSW stewards on Thursday afternoon after The Metropolitan winner Junoob tested positive to Frusemide after its group 1 success in October.

Junoob was subsequently disqualified, elevating stablemate Opinion into first place and the late Araldo, which died after an accident returning to scale from the Melbourne Cup, to third.

Stewards received the certification of the B sample on Wednesday and quickly made plans to hear the case.

Frusemide is an anti-bleeding drug and investigators have already gathered information from the stable.

Frusemide is in common use in many stables in preparation for racing but cannot be in the horse’s system on race day.

It was found in Junoob’s urine sample after The Metropolitan. The win was not only a group 1 but helped Junoob gained runs in the Caulfield and Melbourne cups.

Junoob ran seventh in the Caulfield Cup and 18th in the Melbourne Cup.

Meanwhile, stewards had earlier also announced This Is Australia, which is owned by John Singleton, tested positive to Lignocaine following its debut win at Canterbury on September 3.

This Is Australia’s trainer Clarry Conners will face stewards at 3pm on Monday.