A HORSE-OWNER is taking a trainer to court alleging that the drugs injected under his watch disqualified his horse from top-prize races.

Dr Sam Lim, 60, a Tongan hotelier and Singapore permanent resident is suing then trainer Steven Burridge for $1.35 million, claiming the injection ruled out King & King from entering races for at least 40 days.

Court papers filed allege the injection was given on Oct 29 last year, a day after the horse fared badly in the Raffles Cup race, and two weeks before it was due to start in the $1.35 million Singapore Gold Cup.

Through his lawyer Singa Retnam, he is claiming that Mr Burridge's action deprived his horse from all chances of winning the prize money. King & King won the $350,000 Queen Elizabeth Cup II race in Kranji in March 2006 and also finished second in the $3m Singapore Airlines International Cup two months later.

The injection was uncovered through a medical check-up just before Dr Wang was due to re-enter the horse for the Gold Cup race under a new trainer engaged to replace Mr Burridge.

But Mr Burridge is disputing the claims. He said he noted the horse was sore in the leg, looked tucked up and was not in a condition to race on Oct 29.

He therefore withdrew the horse from the Singapore Gold Cup race before new trainer Desmond Koh called to tell him of the owner's plans.

He argued in defence papers filed by his lawyer S Karthikeyan earlier this month that entries closed on the Oct 29 morning and it would not have been possible to re-enter the horse in the afternoon under the stable name of the new trainer even if Dr Wang had asked Mr Koh to race it with a sore leg and unfit condition.

A High Court pre-trial conference is due to be held on Feb 25.

Read the full story in Saturday's edition of The Straits Times.