Inquiry could result in prizemoney headache

THE question came up just before they finished the 90minute hearing at Racing Victoria headquarters.

What happens to the race results, and the prizemoney?

Racing’s latest scandal is an all-encompassing affair with leading trainers and stable staff staring at long, long bans should they be found guilty.

With no guilty pleas offered by the eight charged people at the final directions hearing, the matter is headed for a hearing beginning on April 30.

It’s set down for two weeks, with bucketloads of evidence to go through and what could be a long argument about just what a “top-up” is.

Lawyers for the charged yesterday gave a teaser they would challenge that idea, suggesting “top-ups” could mean anything.

That itself could force the case to go beyond two weeks and Judge John Bowman, chairman of the panel that will hear the case against the “Aquanita eight”, told the assembled lawyers “we’ll keep going” until it’s finished.

Penalties loom as career threatening for those charged, including leading trainer Robert Smerdon, the biggest name involved, and racing is set for another black eye when more evidence is made public.

But as dire as that sounds, resolution of the matter is just the start of the real battle should guilty findings result.

Included in a massive 17,000 text messages, taken from the phone of Aquanita float driver Greg Nelligan, are references to hundreds of horses at hundreds of race meetings getting “top-ups”.

Should disqualifications arise, a redistribution of prizemoney could become the biggest administrative task ever undertaken at RV.

Not every horse given a “top-up” came out and won, but with prizemoney paid down to eighth at most race meetings, and as far down as 10th in others, hands will come from everywhere asking where their new reward is.

There’s also the matter of reclaiming prizemoney paid to connections of horses proved to have been doped.

The idea was too much for Bowman to even contemplate at the moment the issue was raised by lawyers representing stewards.

“We’ll leave that until we get to the end of the road,” he said. “It won’t be a simple issue.”