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A TAMWORTH horse trainer and a family friend have been found guilty of race-fixing in the first major test of the landmark legislation.
Cody Glenn Morgan and Robert James Clement appeared stunned in Tamworth District Court yesterday afternoon as verdicts of guilty were read out on all charges.
The 11-member jury took less than two hours to find the pair guilty of the charge of engaging in conduct that corrupted the betting outcome of the 2013 Tamworth Cup, after they drenched the winner Prussian Secret in the hours beforehand.
Morgan was also found guilty of using that corrupt conduct knowledge that the horse had been treated, before he placed a $100 each-way bet on the 2013 Tamworth race.
He was also found guilty of entering into an agreement to treat Prussian Secret before the 2013 Gunnedah Cup, to corrupt the betting outcome of the race, with the intention of obtaining a financial advantage.
It can now be revealed the pair were the first to be charged under the criminal race-fixing laws introduced in 2012.
Acting Judge Colin Charteris said the Crown would “have a burden” to prove jail was the appropriate penalty.
“On having heard all the evidence, the matter could have been dealt with in the local court, the only proviso was there was some new legislation, as I understand it,” Acting Judge Colin Charteris said.
The jury was told the financial advantage was purely from the betting on the event, and not any of the race prize money, even though the crown had no evidence Clement had bet on the Tamworth race.
The jury found the pair had entered into an agreement and administered the solution by a nasal gastro tube, with the intent to gain a financial advantage.
The crown had maintained a series of phone intercepts showed the pair were acting in a joint criminal enterprise, after they were heard saying “it’s too risky” to talk about it to others.
Acting Judge Charteris ordered pre-sentence reports for the pair ahead of sentencing in Sydney in late July.
“I would seek bail on behalf of my client,” Morgan’s barrister Peter Skinner told the court.
“And I would seek bail on behalf of my client too,” Clement’s barrister Rod Clifford said.
“I’m of that view as well,” Acting Judge Charteris replied.
The undercover operation, code-named Strike Force Trentbridge, unfolded on May 12, 2013, when detectives from the State Crime Command’s Casino and Racing Investigation Unit, intercepted Prussian Secret en route to the Gunnedah Cup.
During the trial, blood samples taken from the horse during the police raid were presented and the results showed an increasing level of carbon dioxide, or TCO2, in the horse’s bloodstream.
But the peak was 32.5 which is below the racing threshold of 36 set by authorities for competing horses.
An expert vet said, based on the steady rise of the TCO2 levels, he would be “suspicious” of an alkalising agent being administered to Prussian Secret.
The jury was told an alkaline substance offered greater endurance for a horse, and buffered lactic acid, delaying the onset of fatigue and, consequently, enhanced performance.
Clement gave evidence in the trial that he had difficultly with his hands after a fire the night before the Tamworth Cup and couldn’t drench the horse, instead he discarded the solution, but didn’t tell Morgan he didn’t go through with it.
The court heard claims Morgan, who denied stomach tubing Prussian Secret, didn’t find out the horse hadn’t been drenched until 11 months after.