Guilty Birchley can train until penalty
THE Queensland Racing Integrity Commission will allow Liam Birchley to continue training as normal until a penalty is handed down by Victoria’s Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board this week.
Brisbane-based Birchley was one of eight licensees found guilty yesterday after an inquiry into 271 charges relating to race-day treatments.
Birchley, who was found guilty of three charges including one on Melbourne Cup day in 2015, has indicated he will appeal as soon as the penalty is handed down.
Both Victoria and NSW refused to take nominations from Birchley after charges were laid against him earlier this year but he has been able to train in his home state.
Queensland’s Racing Integrity Commissioner Ross Barnett said a decision on his future after the penalty hearing.
Prominent Melbourne trainer Robert Smerdon and stablehands Greg and Denise Nelligan face possible life bans after the Victorian Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board found they played leading roles in Australian racing’s “biggest scandal”.
The former Aquanita Racing figures will be sentenced tomorrow as Victoria Police monitor the nation’s most serious racing integrity crisis since the 1984 Fine Cotton ring-in in Brisbane.
Some of the alleged offending took place in elite races with fears the 2015 Melbourne Cup might have been compromised.
Most offences relate to illegal race-day treatments of hundreds of horses using sodium bicarbonate “top-ups.”
Multiple Group 1-winning trainer Smerdon and the Nelligans were found guilty of more than 250 counts. Tony Vasil, Stuart Webb, Danny Garland and Trent Pennuto were also found guilty.
Board chairman Judge John Bowman said the Aquanita case represented one of the darkest and longest chapters in the history of Australian turf.
“There is a litany of brazen attempts to cheat and obtain an unfair advantage over many years by a well organised team,” he said.
THERE IS A LITANY OF BRAZEN ATTEMPTS TO CHEAT AND OBTAIN AN UNFAIR ADVANTAGE OVER MANY YEARS JUDGE JOHN BOWMAN