In this Discussion
- 2lifetimewinners February 2018
- AbbysAce March 2018
- bookielover March 2018
- carey January 2018
- Coldy December 2017
- DamienWyer July 2018
- dungy November 2017
- Fastmoney November 2017
- Flanders November 2017
- hash July 2018
- JayJay July 2018
- jum February 2018
- LuckyLongshots May 2018
- Manchild February 2018
- marquez November 2017
- Nevershowsurprise March 2018
- paraletic July 2018
- Ridersonthestorm33 May 2018
- RIO February 2018
- savethegame March 2018
- SLIPPERGOLDEN March 2018
- sonny February 2018
- spinking July 2018
- TheDiva May 2018
- thefalcon March 2018
- therealkramer July 2018
- Tivers July 2018
- tony January 2018
- Voodoo December 2017
- wedge January 2018
Comments
spinking, Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.
spinking likes this post.
Brendan Cormick
As
the Melbourne Cup carnival enters its third day, the racing industry is
about to be rocked by the findings of an doping investigation conducted
by Racing Victoria stewards.
Charges
could be laid as early as tomorrow, with stewards exposing the alleged
use of coded text messages to alert punters when to bet on doped horses.
A
far-reaching investigation involves several stables and senior training
figures as well as racing administrators. It’s understood that
interstate figures are also being questioned by integrity officers.
The Australian understands several mobile phones have been seized by Racing Victoria stewards for forensic examination in the past month.
The phones belong to licensed persons. The investigation has looked into three years’ worth of data.
Trainers
from metropolitan, country and interstate stables, their staff and some
owners have had to comply with the investigation as part of their
licensing agreement.
It is understood one figure in a position of prominence will be required to stand aside.
A person known to one of the parties is alleged to have provided information that led to the unravelling of the coded messages.
The
coded texts would be sent to those involved in the scam once the
alleged doping had taken place so that they could orchestrate plunges.
The alleged doping could involve dozens of races.
Racing Victoria stewards are tight-lipped as the matter is currently an investigation being held in-camera.
Racing
Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey would not confirm whether the
current investigation had spread into other stables but he said stewards
still have a number of interviews of licensed persons to conduct before
making any further comment.
Several witnesses gave evidence early last week during an exhaustive day of interviews.
The revelations follow a recent crackdown by stewards on illegal treatment of horses on raceday.
On
October 7 at Flemington, acting on a report from the Compliance
Assurance Team, stewards interviewed Melbourne trainer Robert Smerdon
and registered stablehands Greg Nelligan, Jim Cook and Danny Garland.
It
was in regard to the suspect treatment of the mare Lovani after it had
arrived on course. The mare was led into an enclosed box, believed to be
the one used to get urine samples from horses.
The Australian understands
what followed was filmed on a closed circuit camera and recorded.
Stewards, suspecting race day treatment took place orally, ordered the
late withdrawal of Lovani from the ninth race.
The inquiry was adjourned so that the substance found in a plunger, confiscated from Nelligan, could be identified.
Stewards
have not yet provided anything further in the way of a report. No
charges have been laid in respect to that inquiry and it is not
suggested that the inquiry is linked with the text messaging/doping
scandal.
Trainers not involved in the
case and owners with no blemish on their records want the book thrown at
the alleged culprits if the allegations are proved.
One racing identity said yesterday racing in Victoria would suffer for some time as a result of the findings.
The Australian attempted to contact Smerdon but he was not available.
Racing in Victoria has had to battle damaging headlines around the carnival over the past five years.
The
betting scandal involving Damien Oliver in 2012 tarnished the industry.
He placed $10,000 on the winner of a race at Moonee Valley that he had a
ride in through a conduit from the jockeys’ room. Oliver was banned for
10 months.
The cobalt episode
involving Peter Moody, Mark Kavanagh and Danny O’Brien dragged on
through the 2015 and 2016 carnivals, with the original hearing and a
subsequent appeal.
Moody quit training
after being found guilty, annoyed by the finding and not prepared to
exhaust his finances on further legal fees
Meanwhile,
an apprentice jockey has been suspended for two weeks for punching a
horse ahead of a race at Port Lincoln, on South Australia’s Eyre
Peninsula.
Thoroughbred Racing SA said
Dylan Caboche’s was observed striking his mount She’s Reneldasgirl ahead
of race two at Port Lincoln yesterday. It said stewards conducted an
immediate inquiry and suspended Caboche for two weeks for misconduct.
Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.
Symons: I have nothing to hide
Matt Stewart
'angered and distressed' at being 'dragged into' an apparent doping
scandal.
"I have absolutely nothing to hide. I told (chief steward) Terry
Bailey he could have my phone, my records, the lot. I know absolutely
nothing of any alleged doping of horses. I am utterly distressed that
I've been dragged into it."
Symons, a director of Aquanita Racing for 12 years, and also director of the company that employs trainer Robert Smerdon, confirmed he and other Aquanita directors had been advised by stewards that they would be required to be interviewed.
He said he believed the directors would be the 'last cabs off the
rank because I believe stewards still have to interview a number of
people and also some who haven't yet been available'.
Stewards have given no details of the nature of the inquiry, other
than to indicate that it is ongoing. It is unclear if it will be
resolved within weeks or continue into the New Year.
They are believed to be investigating a possible doping ring that might involve as many as seven trainers.
The investigation follows the recent race-day treatment probe involving Smerdon and his mare Lovani.
Stewards scratched the horse from a race on Turnbull Stakes Day, alleging she had been illegally treated with a paste.
Smerdon, his float driver Greg Nelligan and a strapper were
interviewed on the day. It is believed the paste has been confiscated
and is being tested.
Smerdon did not return calls from Racing.com on Friday, sending a text message: "Sorry I can't talk right now."
Stewards are believed to be in possession of text messages taken from
a phone confiscated from an Aquanita float driver. They are believed to
reveal information about horse doping and related betting activity.
Symons, who said it was well known that he was a punter, said he
would have informed stewards immediately had he ever suspected illegal
practices in the training of horses at Aquanita.
"It was our duty as board directors to ensure our trainers were at
all times compliant and aware of the rules. I'm not pre-judging anything
and I hope this inquiry comes sooner or later. All I'm saying is me,
and the board, have no knowledge of any improper behaviour," he said.
"I am extremely distressed that my name has popped up in this. I am
distressed that information from what should have been a closed inquiry
has become public, given the only people that knew of it were our
directors, contacted by email."
Symons said he challenged Bailey about possible leaking of sensitive information.
"He just said the more wide-ranging the inquiry becomes, the greater the possibility of it getting out," he said.
"I just want this dealt with. I have nothing to hide and will answer any of their questions."
Symons said it had long been proposed that he would relinquish the
chairmanship of the MRC early next year as 'part of our normal
transitioning process' but said he would not resign for the 'wrong
reasons'.
"Once this mess is dusted up and my stated position is proven, there
would want to be a decent gap between that and any decision that was
made regarding the MRC. I would hate for anyone to think they were in
any way connected," he said.
Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.
Here here.
Still astounding how a hoop can have 10k on a rival runner and only get 10 months. But they say he gave his mount every chance...well put it this way if you as a punter had $5, $50, $500, or $5000 on it and before the race somebody came to you and said look mate...um ..Damien Oliver has 10k on another runner in the race..would you still like to be holding that ticket ? Only thing on my mind would be cancel!!
That's nothing against Damien Oliver one of the best jockeys of all time and good luck to be given only ten months.Its what mounting a defence is all about, that's his right.
RIO likes this post.
Telephone text messages...even after thousands of crims have fallen on their sword, they still fall for that one.
Telephone SMS the bane of modern day nefarious activities ...yet they still fall for it! Amazing. There not the quickest horse in the stable.
RIO likes this post.
Then go to the law courts, and charge them with Corruption, Fraud, Theft and put them on the inside for as long as possible....
Of course noone of that will happen, but gee i wish it would
Ridersonthestorm33, SLIPPERGOLDEN likes this post.
Only tongue in cheek and love racing as much as ever. The horse is what makes it..nothing else.
They certainly don’t have large numbers I herd that the names stable is a very big one in saying that who trains for AQ in Victoria??
No he wants to go it alone to nail all the gr1’s with Ocean Jewell lol lol lol
LuckyLongshots likes this post.
I’d love to know the real reasons behind the split. Maybe it’s this saga, maybe something else?
Also, does anyone know if Aquanita are going to remain in Perth or if it’s game over?
Maybe they got sick of him setting every horse for the Dubai World Ciup lol lol lol lol
sonny, Flanders likes this post.
Ridersonthestorm33 likes this post.
sonny likes this post.
A HORSE named Lovani was scratched late at the Turnbull Stakes meeting at Flemington on October 7. The official line was that the “compliance assurance team” reported that registered stablehand and float driver Greg Nelligan had given Lovani “the contents of a plunger orally”.
Regardless of what the plunger contents were — and you can bet it wasn’t toothpaste — there’s a catch-all rule against administering anything to a racehorse on the day it races. Even if it is toothpaste.
Rumour has it the paste in question was a variation on the well-known sodium bicarbonate “milkshake” drench usually poured through a long flexible tube inserted through the nostril direct to the stomach. Allegedly.
Bicarbonate is harmless, not a stimulant or a sedative. Your grandma uses it to bake scones. But if gran gives it to a horse before a race she’s either in trouble or in the money because a big dose of “baking soda” can help a horse run better.
Bicarb mops up the lactic acid produced by intense exercise — lactic acid being what makes muscles “burn” during extreme exertion. Block the acid and the horse gallops a little harder for a little longer. Just enough, as a cunning trainer once suggested, “to make a good thing into a certainty”.
“Milkshakes” have been around a long time, well before a top horse called Encosta de Lago was dubbed “Imposter de Lago” because of an elevated bicarbonate reading after a big race win 20 years ago.
Encosta became a huge success at stud — daddy of champions Chautauqua and Alinghi among others. So it turned out he wasn’t really an impostor, even if one of his progeny was cheekily named “Milkshake” as an in-joke.
But no one close to pointy end of the Lovani inquiry is joking about what it might uncover. Least of all the investigators, who stand to get egg on their face if they don’t take a scalp or two.
Chief steward Terry Bailey is seemingly as tight-lipped as an abalone about the whole episode. But certainly no more so than the canny Robert Smerdon, trainer of Lovani and a third-generation horseman whose forebears perfected the art of setting up betting plunges early last century.
Until he resigned late in the week, Smerdon belonged to the Aquanita Racing training management group — set up to allow trainers to train their horses, undistracted by running the financial side of an exhausting business. As it happens, Melbourne Racing Club’s chairman Mike Symons, a respected businessman, is a director of Aquanita and of Smerdon’s training enterprise.
There is no suggestion either Symons or Smerdon knew anything about Lovani — or anything else under investigation. But the fact that reputations get unfairly trampled doesn’t stop loose talk.
Gossips love a conspiracy theory. In this case a theory that a group of “smarties” have shared information about gallopers being treated on race day with a paste administered with the disposable plastic plungers used to drench horses for parasites. Or even, maybe, by using a compact drench gun like farmers use to drench cattle.
Either plunger or drench gun could easily be hidden by a towel, in a bucket or a jacket pocket — unlike the relatively obvious tube and funnel used for “milkshakes”.
Because the drench is not much harder than swallowing an aspro, the theory goes, the target horse need be screened from view for only a few seconds. Such as, with Lovani, the closed-in stall used to take urine samples.
Here’s where the gossip gets very specific — or very bizarre. The “mail” is that a hidden investigator was watching through a peep hole as Lovani’s handlers produced the plunger of paste.
Peephole or no peephole, Nelligan was nabbed, Lovani was scratched and the horse manure hit the fan. Naturally, everyone associated with Aquanita had to disown any part of the alleged wrongdoing — which might have left Nelligan feeling sad about his employment prospects.
The story goes that someone close to him was also upset. So upset, allegedly, that he or she told the stewards about the code used to text hidden messages to certain mobile phones. A code buried in apparently innocent exchanges about fishing.
If that’s true, then they went angling for gold bricks — and caught pneumonia. Fishing can be risky like that: they say one trainer’s mobile phone has dropped into Port Phillip Bay in the last month.
It could take weeks or months before names are named — or exonerated. Meanwhile, the talk continues. Of rigged races in which the anointed winner is not only well backed after getting its dose of paste — but then sold for big money to Hong Kong on the “strength” of the winning performance.
One persistent story — perhaps apocryphal — is that certain trainers have reversed horses’ usual liking for their home track. There was a time when horses trained at Caulfield, for instance, tended to perform better there than elsewhere. But, strangely, in recent seasons those in certain stables seem to perform better after the short trip across town to race away from home.
RIO likes this post.
RIO likes this post.