Danny O’Brien says Racing Victoria lost trainer Peter Moody while they chased ‘a silly cobalt rainbow’
Racing Victoria’s former integrity team had an obsession with chasing ‘a silly cobalt rainbow’, which in turn had a dramatic effect on Peter Moody at the time, says trainer Danny O'Brien.
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Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate-winning trainer Danny O'Brien has accused Racing Victoria's former integrity team of being obsessed in chasing “a silly cobalt rainbow” and how their actions at the time cost the industry premier trainer Peter Moody.
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Speaking in depth about his three-year battle to clear his name, the Flemington-based trainer said the ordeal cost him “millions of dollars”.
O'Brien, who saddles up Caulfield Cup chance Vow And Declare in Saturday's $5 million race as he chases his first Group 1 win in five years, also told the Herald Sun:
# IT was “an absolute tragedy” Peter Moody walked away from training after being caught up in the cobalt controversy;
# HE never lost his love of racing, but lost trust in the industry's processes until a VCAT hearing overturned Racing Victoria's original decision;
# SCIENCE had proven cobalt was not performance-enhancing for horses, saying Racing Victoria should downgrade its penalties to fines, not bans;
# THE appointment of Integrity Services executive general manager Jamie Stier and Racing Victoria chairman Brian Kruger's leadership helped restore his faith in the system;
# HE and fellow Flemington trainer Mark Kavanagh are still pursuing a reported $10 million civil case.
O'Brien said it was satisfying his stable was back firing two-and-a-half years after he and Kavanagh won a VCAT appeal against their cobalt bans.
Having originally been suspended for four years after four of his horses recorded excessive levels of cobalt in late 2014, Justice Greg Garde's VCAT ruling found O'Brien — and Kavanagh — had no knowledge of cobalt being administered to their horses.
When the case was finalised in February last year, O’Brien was fined $8000 for presenting horses to the races with elevated levels of cobalt beyond the legal threshold, without knowledge of its administration.
“I suspect if myself and Kav hadn't fought the fight — and won — and proven how reckless these people had been, I think we might have still be stuck in that era,” O'Brien said. “Ultimately, that era is responsible for (Robert) Smerdon and it is responsible for (Darren) Weir.”
In May last year Smerdon was disqualified from training for life for “systematic doping” of more than 100 horses. Weir was banned for four years in February after being found with electronic jiggers on his property, but now faces criminal charges of alleged animal cruelty and conspiracy to defraud.
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O'Brien remains heavily critical of Racing Victoria's previous chief steward Terry Bailey, who quit last June.
“The people there (at the time) were just the wrong people and they had the wrong governance around them,” he said.
“They were spending all those resources chasing this silly cobalt rainbow.
“We had three years where we were getting persecuted, but we have come out the other side. We won a protracted court battle and fortunately the people that caused the issue have moved on. That's a double win.”
Stier took over integrity services in mid-2018, while Robert Cram assumed Bailey's former role.
Moody's decision to walk away from training in 2016 after being banned for six months was a stain on the Victorian racing industry, according to O'Brien.
“The industry should be ashamed of what they did to Peter,” O'Brien said.
“Peter was sort of on his own at Caulfield and he just threw his hands up in the air and said, ‘this is too hard’.”
O'Brien urged Racing Victoria to overhaul cobalt protocols, saying there was no scientific evidence it was performance-enhancing.
“I still worry today there are still some of Victoria's most promising trainers — Archie Alexander, Mitchell Freedman and Steve Pateman — who are still in the same position I was in five years ago.
“I don't think they (Racing Victoria) will have the courage to completely backtrack and change the rule, but they just need to downgrade it.
“They need to say ‘All right, you have got this cobalt positive, we accept you don't know how you got it, the science now says it is completely explainable. Here is a $1000 fine, get on with your life’.”
Originally published as Danny O’Brien says Racing Victoria lost trainer Peter Moody while they chased ‘a silly cobalt rainbow’