"I couldn't believe it. I don't drink. The officer was getting pretty annoyed with me when I denied I had been drinking. After about half an hour and a couple of tests the cop realised the fumes were coming from Damian in the back seat who had had a few," Curtin said

"We can laugh now, but it was all very serious at the time," he added.

Wilson was in New Zealand buying horses with leading Victorian trainer, Tony Peacock, who was also in the car. Peacock found the funny side of the incident as well.

"Damian likes a drink alright but I never thought his breath was strong enough to get someone else to return a positive. It's quite funny now, but it wasn't at the time," said Peacock who has been purchasing horses in New Zealand for more than 30 years.

Peacock trains just out of Kilmore with his 26-year-old daughter Crystal and employs Wilson to do a lot of his driving - in the sulky that is, not from the back of Curtin's car.

He said he had been to New Zealand more than 200 times to both visit and buy horses. Some of his most recent stars included DB Bopper, Toe Tapper and the recently retired Reba Raja.

Duane RANGER (editor)