Aquanita doping scandal: Greg Nelligan’s stunning confessions about helping Robert Smerdon
Serial cheat Greg Nelligan has made some stunning revelations, including how the former Aquanita stablehand doped hundreds of horses only because “I was asked” to in Australia’s largest racing scandal.
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Greg Nelligan claims he was never paid to dope hundreds of horses under stewards’ noses in Australia’s largest racing scandal.
Despite hatching the infamous doping scheme with Robert Smerdon, describing the plot as “arrangement”, Nelligan said there was no direct payment from accused trainers.
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In a stunning revelation, the former float driver claimed he used illegal sodium bicarbonate and Tripart “top-ups” on selected runners only because asked to by Smerdon and others.
In a gruelling day of cross examination by Racing Victoria legal counsel Jeff Gleeson, QC, Nelligan claimed five disqualified trainers and three banned former Aquanita employees were all involved in the deception.
When asked by Gleeson “why did you do it?”, Nelligan said: “I was asked.”
Nelligan, his wife Denise and Smerdon are disqualified for life.
Stuart Webb (four years), Tony Vasil (three), Trent Pennuto (two), Danny Garland and Liam Birchley (one) are also disqualified.
Smerdon, Webb, Vasil and Birchley are appealing bans imposed by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Prefacing most of his answers with “I claim that the answer I am about to give may tend to incriminate me”, Nelligan said his life had been a “blur” since being exposed as a cheat.
In conflicting evidence to the VCAT, Nelligan first claimed he had first used performance-enhancing sodium bicarbonate and Tripart paste in 2012.
But, under questioning from Gleeson, and in the face of hundreds of incriminating texts, Nelligan admitted the scheme probably started in 2010.
He also said Smerdon would ring him to dope a horse rather than use texts — evidence he later contradicted when presented with reams of text exchanges.
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Nelligan said while many people in racing used the term “top-ups” in relation to horse feed and water, he and Smerdon came up with a more sinister meaning.
“Top-ups was to top up feed and water but Mr Smerdon and I came to an arrangement where that meant something else,” Nelligan said.
“But it was just between Mr Smerdon and myself.”
Nelligan said the arrangement involved race-day treatment.
The Nelligans, Pennuto and Danny Garland are not appealing their penalties.
Nelligan said his wife was “angry with me” after the scheme was exposed in October last year when he was caught attempting to treat Lovani in a horse urinal at Flemington.
“I was caught attempting, yes,” he said.
“It has been a blur since.”
Nelligan revealed he had fallen out with Vasil after the Group 1-winning trainer yelled at Nelligan’s wife Denise in March.
Asked if he was a friend of Vasil’s, Nelligan replied: “Maybe former (friend).
“I haven’t spoken to him for months and months.
“We had an argument, he yelled at my wife and I told him to leave.
“I can’t remember what he said. I wasn’t happy with him. He’d been drinking at the time.”
Nelligan said his wife, who is scheduled to give evidence at VCAT, was not involved “to a great extent at all.
“Denise had so little knowledge of it.”
Accused by Gleeson of not giving forthright answers, Nelligan said: “I’ve come here to tell the truth.”
Later, he agreed Webb, Vasil and Birchley had all been party to the rorting.
The hearing continues with both Nelligans, Pennuto and Garland to give evidence.
NELLIGAN CLEAR ON ‘CIRCLE OF TRUST’ PARTICIPANTS
Comment with Leo Schlink
Sitting only metres from the men Racing Victoria claims were once either his superiors or fellow consiparators, Greg Nelligan didn’t miss a beat.
In the four hours the disgraced former stablehand and float driver spent in the witness box, it took just a few minutes to answer the question that had swirled in racing circles for months.
Who, exactly, was in the notorious so-called circle of trust?
Disqualified for life and without nothing to lose, Nelligan was asked about who exactly was in the Aquanita alleged doping cabal’s inner circle.
Under questioning from Racing Victoria’s Jeff Gleeson, QC, Nelligan tipped the bucket on each of those disqualified over the seven-year racing rort — including his wife Denise.
Prefacing every answer with “I claim the answer I am about to give may tend to incriminate me”, Nelligan could not have failed to notice Liam Birchley and Stuart Webb sitting in the front row at the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.
Nor could he have missed his “former friend” Tony Vasil in the back row of room G-1.
Robert Smerdon, his former boss and foundation partner in the alleged illicit scheme, is yet to appear at the hearing — and is unlikely to show up.
When asked if Birchley was in the “circle of trust”, Nelligan said: “I think so.”
Gleeson pounced: “Stuart Webb?”
Nelligan: “I think so.”
Gleeson: “Tony Vasil?”
Nelligan: “Yes”
Gleeson: “Robert Smerdon?”
Nelligan: “Yes.”
After a brief exchange, Nelligan said he doubted whether stablehand Danny Garland was in the tight-knit group of alleged cheats.
Eventually, Nelligan dropped the hammer on the man known as “The Moth” with “I probably think so.”
Gleeson: “Trent Pennuto?”
Nelligan: “I don’t get on with Trent Pennuto. I haven’t spoken to him for a long time. I never trusted him.”
Last but by no means least, Nelligan said his wife Denise was also aware of the group’s alleged activities, adding her knowledge of the scheme was limited.
Speaking for the first time since 123 charges relating to the use of performance-enhancing sodium bicarbonate and Tripart paste “top-ups” were levelled against him, Nelligan cut a solitary figure.
Dressed in a stylish black suit with a pale striped shirt and purple tie, he contrasted vividly with the edgy character caught with a modified syringe stuffed under an Aquanita Racing jacket at Flemington last year.
Often pausing lengthily before answering, Nelligan’s evidence was supremely candid.
Whatever legal imperatives were at play, Nelligan agreed all of the charged parties, notably ring-leading Smerdon, were active participants.
He claimed he might have treated only 20 horses on various racecourses, often after they had been blood-tested to check TC02 levels, a number much lower than officials to be the case.
Nelligan, now 60, said he often shirked orders because of the fear of being caught.
In extensive evidence, he agreed some of those convicted treated horses in floats while the trucks where being followed by stewards.
He described Vasil’s behaviour as “erratic”, admitting his friendship with the trainer had fractured after Vasil had yelled at Denise Nelligan.
In another revelation, he told the tribunal that Vasil had actually wanted to get caught because the Group 1-winning trainer didn’t want to train any more.
While Nelligan conceded he had planned to treat five horses on Melbourne Cup Day, 2015, he claims not to remember either tubing or injecting horses in the Cup.
“I remember nothing about two Cup horses,” he said, referring to the historic race won by Michelle Payne on Prince Of Penzance.
“I’ve got no idea. I never did a Cup horse.”
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