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Aust'n racing industry in turmoil as leading trainers hit with doping charges

Xinhua, June 12, 2015 Adjust font size:

Victoria's racing industry has been thrown into turmoil after four of the country's leading horse trainers were charged with administering their horses with cobalt, a banned substance. If found guilty, the quartet face bans of up to three years.

Trainers Danny O'Brien, Mark Kavanagh, and Lee and Shannon Hope have been charged by Racing Victoria stewards while Peter Moody, trainer of famous sprinter Black Caviar, is still under investigation.

Racing Victoria released the details of the charges, which some horses had been found with more than three times the legal limit of cobalt in their urine.

Dayle Brown from Racing Victoria told Fairfax Media on Friday the investigation was an exhaustive one, with 29 breaches found.

"Today's issuing of charges against five persons follows an exhaustive and complex investigation by Racing Victoria's integrity services team into elevated cobalt samples," he said.

"We have dedicated considerable resources to completing these investigations as swiftly as possible while insuring they were thorough."

Kavanagh and O'Brien are two of the most high profile trainers in Australia. Kavanagh won the 2009 Melbourne Cup with his horse Shocking, while O'Brien has won 16 group one races in Australia, including the revered Cox Plate.

Veterinarian Tom Brennan has also been charged with administering cobalt and has also been accused of supplying or causing to supply cobalt to Kavanagh and O'Brien.

Cobalt, in trace amounts, is found in horse feed and is needed by horses. A typical reading of cobalt in horse urine is 5 micrograms per liter (mcg/L) up to about 50mcg/L in extreme cases.

There has already been much debate about the threshold which, in Australia, is set at 200mcg/L. The threshold will likely be reviewed and changed to be consistent with other racing standards, such as in Hong Kong, where he threshold is just 100mcg/L.

One of Mark Kavanagh's horses, Magicool, was found to have 640mcg/L in its urine.

When present, cobalt stimulates red blood cells so they can carry more oxygen, allowing a horse to perform at peak levels, but when administered in high levels, in can be toxic to horses.

The use of cobalt was only prohibited in Victoria during April of last year, with all states adopting the 200mcg/L standard on January 1, 2015. All trainers involved are Victorian based, with the positive reading being recorded in a stretch from September until November in 2014.

No date has yet been set for the hearings. O'Brien will face 16 charges, while Kavanagh will face four. Father and son duo Shannon and Lee Hope will face nine charges between them. Endi