Trainer Peter Moody suspended for 12 months with six months suspended on charge of cobalt administration without intent
UPDATE: AN enforced winter on the sidelines will not diminish Peter Moody’s love of the game nor his desire to rekindle his spectacular but stalled training career.
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AN enforced winter on the sidelines will not diminish Peter Moody’s love of the game nor his desire to rekindle his spectacular but stalled training career.
“I’d like to think I’ve had a great career and racing has been terrific to me and I hope it can be terrific to me again,’’ Moody said after he was suspended on Thursday for 12 months — with six suspended — by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board.
“I want to go out on my terms, not someone else’s,’’ he said.
Thursday’s elation turned last night into deflation – but a sense of hope.
Moody avoided a mandatory three-year disqualification on the most serious charge relating to Lidari’s positive cobalt test from his second placing in the 2014 Turnbull Stakes and had hoped for a fine when the RADB delivered its penalty on Thursday.
Jeff Gleeson, counsel acting for Racing Victoria stewards had urged the board to disqualify Moody for two years on the basis that Moody’s “conduct’’ had led to Lidari’s illegal test.
The board on Thursday stripped Lidari of his Turnbull placing.
Gleeson insisted Moody had to be sent “the clearest of messages”.
Moody, who said a disqualification would have crushed his career, has until March 24 to exit his Booran Rd stables at Caulfield.
That might include the exodus of 95 horses at the stable and over 200 others on his books.
His options may include the slotting in of an interim trainer or the complete dispersal of his stock.
Moody has several runners this weekend, including Flamberge — owned by Racing Victoria chairman David Moodie — in The Galaxy at Rosehill on Saturday.
Moody said outside the RADB that he was “a bit numb, but it gives me some possibility of saving my business in some way, shape or form”.
He said he would not appeal the decision “because I wanted this matter ended today”.
Moody said his first discussion in a week that will be hectic and challenging “to see if we can hold it together for six months’’ would be to consult with his biggest owner — his wife Sarah.
“My wife races 70 horses and there are not many bigger owners in Australia. She will have to make a decision on what she wants to do with her horses,’’ he said.
Moody said he “didn’t know what to think’’ but would have been “stupid’’ had he not considered a lengthy suspension a possibility.
Moody insisted he still loved racing but said “decision making processes’’ — including his own and those of the stewards — might need to be reviewed.’’
“Look, it’s a great bloody industry,’’ he said.
Moody ushered RV chief steward Terry Bailey for a private chat just after the verdict was delivered and said it had been “a great meeting”.
He said they had in part discussed Moody’s options with the stable in the next seven days.
He said he and Bailey had also discussed “who could get home first to have a XXXX (beer) because we’re both Queenslanders.’’
During submissions Gleeson argued Moody had not been merely a “bystander’’ to Lidari’s illegal cobalt levels and had “thumbed his nose’’ at poor stable practices that had led to it.
Matt Stirling, for Moody, said the administration of the drug had not been “deliberate or intentional’’ and that Moody had suffered financial loss and the tag of “drug cheat’’ for 14 months.
Gleeson said Moody’s actions had warranted such “speculation and scepticism”.
Mick Price, who trains favourites Extreme Choice and Flying Artie in Saturday’s Golden Slipper Stakes at Rosehill, appeared before the board as a witness to Moody’s stable practices.
Price, who had an at times heated exchange with Gleeson, said Moody’s systems were the best in Australia.
THE MAN
HE is one of the biggest names in Australian racing, the trainer that guided the mighty Black Caviar to 25 wins from 25 starts.
And after a long investigation Peter Moody has been cleared of administering cobalt for the purpose of horse performance.
Here is how his career and the investigation unfolded.
PETER MOODY
Born: 31/7/1969, Charleville, Queensland.
Early years: Learned his trade in outback Queensland before spending time working with legendary trainers Tommy Smith and Colin Hayes and then joined Bill Mitchell in Brisbane. Gained prominence as travelling foreman with Mitchell and his grand sprinter General Nediym.
Wins: 2399 wins.
Group 1 wins: 53.
BEST HORSES
BLACK CAVIAR — 25 wins from 25 starts, including 15 Group 1 wins. Australian Horse Of The Year three times — 2010-11, 2011-12, 2012-13.
TYPHOON TRACY — 11 wins from 20 starts, including 5 Group 1 wins. Australian Horse Of The Year 2009-10.
DISSIDENT — 7 wins from 21 starts, including 5 Group 1 wins. Australian Horse Of The Year 2014-15.
Others: MANIGHAR (three Group 1 wins), MOMENT OF CHANGE (three Group 1 wins) WANTED, RIVA SAN, SKY CUDDLE, AMALFI, MID SUMMER MUSIC.
TIMELINE
2001
November — Bursts into national prominence winning the Victoria Derby, his first Group 1, with Amalfi.
2003
November — Wins second Group 1 with Ancient Songs in the Salinger Stakes.
2009
April — Black Caviar makes her debut with a win at Flemington.
2010
June — Fined $3000 after Returntosender tested positive to A-butyl-hyoscine after winning at Caulfield that April.
July — Wins first of three Melbourne trainers’ premierships, breaking the Hayes/Freedman stranglehold of 32 years.
November — Black Caviar wins her first Group 1 race, the Patinack Stakes.
2011
July — wins second Melbourne trainers’ premiership setting a record of 103 ½ wins.
October — Found guilty but not penalised after Lethal Arrow returned positive test to Oripavine (an opioid narcotic) in May that year.
2012
April — Black Caviar sets an Australasian record 20 wins from 20 starts with victory in the Robert Sangster Stakes in Adelaide.
June — Black Caviar narrowly wins the Diamond Jubilee Stakes at Royal Ascot.
July — wins third Melbourne trainers’ premiership.
2013
April — Black Caviar wins the T.J. Smith Stakes at Randwick to take her record to 25 from 25. Days later, Moody announces her retirement.
2014
April — Refused to hand over a copy of his stable keys to stewards but later relented. Accuses Racing Victoria of trying to put a “spy’’ in his stable some months earlier. This is denied by RV.
2015
January — Informed that Lidari has returned a positive drug test to cobalt.
Fined $1200 by NSW stewards for two positive tests to anti-inflammatory Ibuprofen returned by House Of Hingis the previous November.
June — Charged by Racing Victoria stewards with presentation and administration of cobalt, regarding Lidari.
August — Dissident wins Victorian Horse Of The Year but Moody refuses to attend saying he would save Racing Victoria the embarrassment of presenting him an award. He said Racing Victoria had decided “my involvement in this sport is prejudicial to the image of racing.”
Refuses to talk to media after his galloper Abidewithme wins at Caulfield saying he has imposed a media ban. The day before he was on Melbourne radio where he said “I’m either good for the game or bad for the game — get your splinters out of your arse and make your mind up is what I’m saying” in relation to Racing Victoria.
September — Explodes at Pakenham races saying he was happy to walk away from the industry due to harassment and over policing by stewards as well as having to deal with draconian ARB rules.
December — The Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board begins hearing evidence against Moody on charges of administering cobalt. Moody blame’s Lidari’s illegal reading on high concentrations of hoof powder, Avalia.
2016
February 18 — Final submissions are made to the RAD Board in Moody’s cobalt hearings. Counsel for the stewards says Moody’s defence is filled with “inconsistencies and absurdities”.
February 27 — Wins the 1200m Oakleigh Plate with 30-1 outsider Flamberge, his 53rd Group 1.
March 16 — Moody avoids a three-year ban after being cleared of administering cobalt for the purpose of horse performance.
March 17 — Peter Moody suspended for 12 months, 6 months suspended. Begins midnight March 24.
Originally published as Trainer Peter Moody suspended for 12 months with six months suspended on charge of cobalt administration without intent
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