The “unequivocal evidence” accepted by stewards that Damien Oliver was not a betting man is enough to have charges against trainer Robert Smerdon thrown out, his lawyer told his appeal hearing on Monday.
Smerdon is charged with bringing racing into disrepute by passing on $10,0000 in cash from a mutual friend to Oliver.
All sides now acknowledge the money was the proceeds of a bet the jockey improperly placed in the horse Miss Octopussy at Moonee Valley on October 1 last year.
But Smerdon maintains he had no knowledge at the time that the money given to him by form analyst Mark Hunter to pass to Oliver was the proceeds of a bet on a horse.
“It would have been an insult for Mr Smerdon to suggest to Oliver that he’d had a bet,” Smerdon’s lawyer Patrick Wheelahan told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT).
Oliver admitted last year he improperly placed the bet through Hunter and was duly banned from racing for nine months.
In that case, stewards accepted Oliver’s testimony that the bet was a “one-off”.
They also accepted evidence from trainer Lee Freedman, Oliver’s former master and an associate for more than 25 years, that he had never known the jockey to bet.
Smerdon similarly had no knowledge of Oliver betting on horses.
“He’s not the sort of person I would expect to be a gambler,” Smerdon said in evidence.
“He’s pretty frugal … careful with his money.”
Under those circumstances, Wheelahan said Smerdon had every right to regard Oliver as an “honourable person” and to hold the same view.
“It would be inherently unfair for Smerdon to anticipate the cash Hunter had given him was a result of a bet,” he said.
“He is not obliged to second guess a man of Oliver’s standing.”
The stewards claim Smerdon should have enquired about the reason Hunter was giving Oliver $10,000, but he maintains it was “none of my business”.
He says he was merely doing a favour for a friend, that he never counted the money and he passed it on to Oliver in private because “that is what I would do whoever it was”.
“I’d rather not know,” he said.
A decision will be announced on a date to be fixed.
