Racing in Australia is facing its biggest challenge with allegations of widespread illegal use of cobalt by trainers and vets.
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The charging of Peter Moody on Friday with three counts relating to the administration of cobalt has attracted the attention of racing enthusiasts all over the world.
He is one of the nation's most successful horsemen, a modern great, but is facing a career-ending term if found guilty.
Unless the industry has the strength to deal with cobalt and send a clear message by banning cobalt users, the industry risks a degree of irrelevance both at home and overseas.
Make no mistake, the future of the sport is under threat. Trainers have said they are disillusioned and frustrated over the doping charges and rumours, with some suggesting, tongue in cheek, that they need to cheat to be competitive.
Australia's cobalt doping cases have grabbed the headlines. In England at Royal Ascot in recent weeks, Australian trainers Robert Smerdon, David Hayes and Chris Waller were quizzed more about cobalt than the horses they had taken there.
Cobalt doping
The cobalt saga is breathtakingly large, involving trainers across five states in harness and thoroughbred racing.
Already 14 trainers have been given possible career-ending disqualifications and there are more to come.
In high-profile cases in Victoria and NSW racing, five horse trainers, a vet, a practice manager, warned-off harness identities and a stablehand are facing almost 100 serious charges among them.
In the Sam Kavanagh inquiry in NSW there have been allegations of cash payments and standover tactics. This week we heard of secret meetings and a senior NSW racing official Matt Rudolph was given a "show cause notice" for allegedly trying to coerce Kavanagh to alter his evidence and not implicate horse vet Tom Brennan as the supplier of super concentrated bootleg cobalt.
No evidence has been made public in Victoria but as trainers Lee and Shannon Hope, Danny O'Brien, Mark Kavanagh and Moody have finally been charged by Racing Victoria, explanations for high cobalt levels in nine horses will be given at the Racing and Disciplinary Board hearings which will begin soon.
One might expect evidence similar to that taken in NSW in Sam Kavanagh's case as Brennan and his practice Flemington Equine Clinic were stable vets to both Sam and father Mark Kavanagh and to O'Brien.
Brennan is facing 11 charges in NSW and 20 in Victoria. A vitamin bottle seized from Sam Kavanagh's stable in Sydney and allegedly supplied by Brennan was analysed and found to contain 175 times the concentration of cobalt normally found in vitamin supplements.
Embalming fluid
In yet another twist in Sydney, evidence was taken at Sam Kavanagh's inquiry that on race day one of his horses was drenched and injected intravenously with an unknown solution purported to be formaldehyde, though the person injecting the horse did not know what was in the syringe. For a racehorse to be injected on race day with an unknown solution beggars belief.
Formaldehyde is a highly toxic carcinogenic preservative used as an embalming fluid among other things. It does not come in a preparation for intravenous use. Evidence at Kavanagh's inquiry from Stuart Valance, an associate vet at Brennan's Flemington clinic, said it was "common place for FEC vets to inject formaldehyde IV into bleeders before a gallop".
Surely this statement alone should trigger an animal cruelty investigation by the RSPCA and the Veterinary Board of Victoria. Yet the silence from these two organisations has been deafening.
When asked by Fairfax Media to comment on racing's cobalt dramas and the charging of Brennan, veterinary board president Ros Nichols said they may or may not investigate these vets and the vet board did not accept everything in print as accurate.
With such profound inactivity it is little wonder racing jurisdictions such as Racing NSW want to license and regulate vets. Yet Equine Veterinarians Australia vehemently oppose Racing NSW and are advising their members not to be licensed.
In this climate, where public confidence in the veterinary profession is being eroded at an exponential rate, one wonders why the EVA is behaving in this way.
Lost generation
The industry risks losing a whole generation of supporters over cobalt. The concept of animal health and welfare is especially important to younger generations. A colleague's teenage daughter, a pony club rider, on hearing about cobalt, was damning of the industry and asked: "Who is looking after the horses?" Today's youth are much more socially conscious and the thoughts expressed by the teenager encapsulate the thoughts of her generation.
Racing has already seen the animal welfare lobby effectively end jumps racing, change the use of the whip and then take aim at two-year-old racing.
In this climate it is unbelievable the next threat has come from within the industry with trainers and vets accused of doping horses with scant regard for the horses' welfare.
As we head to the RAD Board hearings in Victoria, the teenager's question echoes.
In light of last week's death of a track rider one could also ask: Who is looking after the rider and the jockey when potentially lethal cocktails are being used?