Inquiry hears no proof cobalt boosts performance

THE potentially crippling show cause hearings of five trainers will be held today amid key racing administrators’ admissions there is no scientific evidence cobalt is performance enhancing for horses.

Racing Victoria head vet Dr Brian Stewart, who has been the industry expert in the cases against the Victorian trainers, said he was “100 per cent confident’’ cobalt had the “potential’’ to enhance performance.

But Stewart said no scientific study on racehorses confirmed his theory, and two trials to test it “did not demonstrate an EPO-like effect’’.

Racing NSW strongly appears to have backed away from a previous stance that cobalt was a performance enhancer. In a letter sent from Racing NSW’s legal counsel Pete Sweeney to embattled vet Tom Brennan’s lawyer Tony Hargreaves on July 15, Sweeney wrote he had been instructed that “it isn’t maintained that cobalt does in fact enhance performance’’.

The letter was in the context of the cobalt and caffeine case being conducted by Racing NSW against trainer Sam Kavanagh, whose relationship with Brennan has been a big feature of the inquiry.

Brennan is head vet at Flemington Equine Clinic, which had been employed by Mark Kavanagh, father of Sam, and Danny O’Brien. Both trainers have parted ways with the clinic.

Stewart said it was difficult to establish in a trial if cobalt improved performance but maintained general scientific wisdom regarding mammals supported his theory and cobalt “had no place in normal (equine) medicine’’.

He said there was no doubt intense use of cobalt was a serious animal welfare issue, adding: “The Americans seem to be going much harder on that angle (welfare) than the other (improved performance).’’

Today’s show cause hearing, now open to the media after a backflip from stewards yesterday, comes as a Queensland trainer was disqualified on Monday for 18 months for a cobalt irregularity.

Jamie McConachy’s horse Vandalised returned illegal levels after winning the Rockhampton Cup in June last year.

Peter Moody, Mark Kavanagh, Danny O’Brien and Lee and Shannon Hope must all explain to stewards today why they should keep their training licences before charges against them are heard.

Moody has said he would appeal to the Supreme Court for an injunction if stood down and ruled out of the spring carnival. It is likely some, if not all, of the other trainers would also seek injunctions.