Aquanita doping scandal: Greg Nelligan reveals he tried to exploit Winx to dope horse at Flemington

Convicted horse doper Greg Nelligan has revealed he deliberately tried to take advantage of Winx’s presence at Flemington last year to inject a horse, believing she would provide the perfect distraction for stewards.

For four years and longer, Winx has been the poster child of Australian racing.

During infrequent visits to Flemington, the world’s best mare has lent an electrifying presence to Headquarters.

The Winx factor was there in spades last spring but, on October 7, 2017, there was a more sinister connotation to what has become her annual cameo at the home of Australia’s most famous race.

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Calculating the most effective time to plunge a modified syringe into Lovani’s mouth, Greg Nelligan figured 3.07pm presented the prime opportunity to dope.

Winx, in the throes of building her 29-race winning streak, was parading to the barriers for the Turnbull Stakes.

As ever, Winx commanded the attention of most, but not all, that day.

Nelligan assumed everybody would be smitten by Winx’s presence, presenting the perfect blind to administer sodium bicarbonate and Tripart paste to Lovani.

But the convicted doper had no clue Racing Victoria’s Compliance and Assurance team was swarming through the stalls area.

Winx racing on Turnbull Stakes Day at Flemington in 2017. Picture: Alex Coppel

Dion Villella was standing on a ladder, hidden in a recess behind the horse urinal and watching through a vent, when Nelligan made his move.

“When Winx was running, I foolishly thought that they (stewards and spectators) would be watching her,” Nelligan said.

“And I had an opportunity.”

He was wrong.

By the time Winx strolled in by almost seven lengths, Nelligan was under intense questioning from stewards.

Soon after, his mobile phone was imaged, thousands of text messages extracted and the journey to ignominy was only just starting.

He describes the race-track intervention, which led to 123 sustained charges of dishonourable conduct and a life ban, as a blur.

He was shocked by the sound of Villella’s voice and the order to stop what he was doing.

Fifteen months on, Nelligan ruefully reflects on a savage fall from grace when asked about his integrity.

“I don’t claim to have any integrity in this industry anymore,” he said.

Winx, however inadvertently, had played an unwitting role in bringing down a dark era of subterfuge while extending her own golden reign.

Greg Nelligan at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal. Picture: AAP

Nelligan, currently working part-time as a “trades assistant” in Perth, maintains racing is an industry he “loves”.

It is one of the reasons, coupled with the fear of being caught, he was driven to abandon text boasts to dope Melbourne Cup horses.

“It’s a pretty sacred race,” he said.

“It would be ridiculously foolish to attempt” treating Melbourne Cup horses at Flemington with so many people in the stalls area.

Quizzed at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal about texts suggesting he planned to use sodium bicarbonate on up to seven horses at the 2015 Melbourne Cup meeting, Nelligan denied treating Cup runners.

“I have no idea ... I can’t recall, but I don’t think that I did it,” Nelligan said

“I think that would be a day I considered too risky.

“I have no recollection of doing horses for the Melbourne Cup.”

Asked about his failed friendship with Vasil, Nelligan admitted he and his wife lived rent-free in the trainer’s east Brighton house for five years.

The relationship soured in March this year when Vasil confronted Mrs Nelligan about referring to him in a text exchange as a “selfish wanker”.

Described by Trent Pennuto as Vasil’s one-time “taxi driver”, Nelligan said the couple were “quite relieved to leave the house” belonging to Vasil.

Asked if his wife had it in for Vasil, Nelligan conceded there was no love lost between the two.

The tribunal resumes on Wednesday.

Originally published as Aquanita doping scandal: Greg Nelligan reveals he tried to exploit Winx to dope horse at Flemington