Blinkers Off: Cobalt saga ruining Australian racing’s image overseas

STANDING among rubble and cracked pillars of the Acropolis, Terry Henderson clutched his mobile phone and pondered the crumbling status of Australia’s Sport Of Kings.

INTERNATIONAL HORSES

TERRY Henderson stood at the ruins of one empire last Friday as he spoke with sadness of the collapsing fortunes of another.

Henderson, the famous racehorse owner and constant traveller, was at the Acropolis in Greece.

Just hours earlier, half a world away, his most famous horse trainer had been charged with administering cobalt, or causing it to be administered, to one of gallopers to help it win a race.

Standing among rubble and cracked pillars, Henderson clutched his mobile phone and pondered the crumbling status of Australia’s Sport Of Kings.

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He was careful not to put the chariot before the horse.

Peter Moody — and Mark Kavanagh, Danny O’Brien, the Hopes father and son team and a growing number of others around the country — has been charged but not found guilty.

Henderson, whose OTI syndicate races Lidari, the Moody-trained horse who pushed through the cobalt ceiling, is both a racing purist and loyal supporter.

Like his business partner Simon O’Donnell and another big-time Moody owner, Racing Victoria chairman David Moodie, Henderson will remain staunchly in his trainer’s corner as his day or reckoning draws closer.

The increasingly grim faces of the accused and the eruptions interstate, particularly the gobsmacking revelations of the ongoing Sam Kavanagh inquiry in Sydney, suggest the walls are closing in not just on this handful of trainers, but the industry itself.

It’s not just a regional drama, either.

Peter Moody has been charged with using colbalt. Picture: Norm Oorloff

Henderson said he would back his man but also said the damage of this saga was killing the image of Australian racing internationally.

He said our cobalt saga “was all they are talking about’’ at places like Newmarket in the UK.

Henderson has a network of trainers and racing associates throughout the world. His syndicate buys a handful of Caulfield and Melbourne Cup hopefuls from Europe, even places like Argentina, each year. One such horse was Lidari.

Henderson demands his dealings and his trainers are squeaky-clean because he is aware, always, that he operates in an industry that can easily be corrupted.

Matt Chapman, the colourful UK racing host, also said in a Melbourne radio interview last week that the scandals of Australian racing were the talking points of UK racing.

There seems to be a growing perception internationally that Aussie racing is full of short-cutting cowboys; that if Europeans come out here the playing field might be more than a little lopsided.

Against that, of course, is that the European and Japanese horses wallop us every time they compete here.

Racing, globally, is as much about prestige as prizemoney and the fear of Henderson and others is that Australian racing might be perceived, if not now then soon, as the badlands of world racing.

It’s unfair, of course — especially given the UK, US and elsewhere are not immune from such scandals — and premature.

But this Aussie, not Greek, tragedy is attracting a global audience that isn’t impressed.

Originally published as Blinkers Off: Cobalt saga ruining Australian racing’s image overseas