Cobalt Trial: Danny O’Brien, Mark Kavanagh, Tom Brennan face Racing Victoria over cobalt allegations

THE first day of a case that could kill off two famous careers and sink the final nail into another was tough to follow, writes Matt Stewart.

THE first day of a case that could kill off two famous careers and sink the final nail into another opened with a series of “farcical’’ zigzagging timelines.

As two prominent trainers and a vet — already disqualified for six years in Sydney — sat before the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board, Jeff Gleeson, acting for Racing Victoria stewards, took the board on a meandering journey of a series of interviews Gleeson says confirmed increasingly desperate Danny O’Brien, Mark Kavanagh and vet Tom Brennan engaged in “evolving stories’’ of farce.

Gleeson said their stories started with “feigned ignorance, feigned innocence’’ when first alerted to positive drug tests to cobalt in January, then “a maze of lies’’ when evidence mounted against them in a series of interviews with stewards.

“Put simply their story has changed so many times it’s embarrassing,’’ Gleeson said, adding they “clung valiantly to driftwood in the hope it will keep them afloat.’’

Gleeson said O’Brien and Kavanagh at first denied there had been any changes to the feeding or treatment regimes to any of the horses — four trained by O’Brien and one by Kavanagh — that had returned illegal levels of cobalt.

Brennan would later blame routine vitamin supplements, then intravenous drips he claimed he was unaware to contain cobalt.

Then, at a later interview, Brennan said he had some concerns about the “vitamin complex’’ bottles his colleague Adam Matthews had sourced in Canada but did not have them privately tested because it would cost up to $100,000.

Brennan told stewards in one interview that he was “extremely anti cobalt’’ and he had warned RV chief vet Dr Brian Stewart that cobalt may be prevalent in the industry.

Danny O'Brien and Mark Kavanagh enter the cobalt hearings at Racing Victoria HQ. Picture: Mike Keating

In interviews with stewards in January O’Brien said he was “absolutely stunned’’ and could offer no explanation. He made no mention of drip cocktails provided by Brennan nor $3000 payments to Brennan for them.

In his January interview Kavanagh said there had never been any cobalt in his stables and said none of his horses had received injected vitamin supplements.

But the stewards kept interviewing.

Brennan, co-owner of the Flemington Equine Clinic, had initially lied about providing “vitamin complex’’ drips to Mark Kavanagh’s Sydney-based son Sam, then later admitted he had, but said he didn’t know they contained concentrated cobalt.

Damien Sheales, representing the two trainers, argued “irrelevance’’ in connecting Sam Kavanagh’s relationship with Brennan to yesterday’s inquiry but there appeared a possibly damaging link in evidence supplied by junior Flemington Equine employee Samantha Potter.

Potter told stewards some months ago that she saw Brennan inject a substance from a “vitamin complex’’ bottle to a horse of O’Brien’s that was the same as one seized at Sam Kavanagh’s stables before he was found guilty of administering cobalt to his horses. Sam Kavanagh has since been disqualified for nine years.

In one interview with O’Brien, stewards advise him of Potter’s evidence. He responded with “I just don’t believe it.’’

O’Brien later told stewards he had engaged in a series of trials of Brennan’s drips, an admission Gleeson said O’Brien should have made at his initial interview some months earlier. Gleeson also queried why it was only after many interviews that O’Brien admitted to paying Brennan $3000 for three drips via a bank transaction. Brennan also said Kavanagh paid him $3000 in cash for the drips, which Kavanagh denied.

O’Brien told stewards he paid Brennan directly for the drips because he did not want to impose cost to his owners for something that he was merely trialling.

In one interview O’Brien conceded the illegal readings must have come from the drips but said he had faith in Brennan: “He’s not going to go rogue on me, he’s just not like that.’’ He added: “We never would have done the trial if we knew there was any risk.’’

Things have changed. O’Brien and Kavanagh sacked Brennan some time ago and now have one angle in their defence; Brennan did it and we didn’t know.

Brennan, already out for six years, also has just one defence; yes, I was negligent but I didn’t know either.

The hearing continues today.

Originally published as Cobalt Trial: Danny O’Brien, Mark Kavanagh, Tom Brennan face Racing Victoria over cobalt allegations