Trainers Lee and Shannon Hope knew far more about cobalt than they admitted, a tribunal says in finding them guilty of cobalt charges.
The father-and-son trainers face a minimum three-year disqualification after being found guilty of administering cobalt to affect the performance of three of their racehorses.
Shannon Hope is more culpable than his father and faces a harsher penalty, Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board Judge Russell Lewis said on Thursday.
The RAD Board found cobalt was administered to the horses on or before the race days when the elevated levels were recorded.
It said the Hopes were not credible witnesses and both knew far more about cobalt than they admitted.
The Hopes had argued that the elevated readings returned by Windy Citi Bear, Best Suggestion and Choose resulted from their supplements and intravenous regime, but the board said that was not a credible explanation.
Shannon Hope was in charge of the supplements and IV administration.
“It beggars belief that he would not have known that cobalt was present in many of the supplements and medications and that he would not have appreciated that cobalt had the potential to become a problem,” the board said.
“Lee Hope knew what supplements Shannon was administering but denied any knowledge of cobalt, which to the board seems odd, he being an experienced trainer in his own right for many years before entering into partnership with his son.
“His denial that he had any discussion about cobalt with his son with whom he was working side by side, or with their veterinarian (who attended the stables on a weekly basis) especially after receiving the stewards’ notice and hearing radio reports of the cobalt threshold, strains credulity.”
The Hopes’ legal counsel Robert Stitt QC said the board should use its discretion to impose a fine on Lee Hope rather than disqualification.
“The proper penalty is a fine. It is not appropriate that he should be disqualified from his 50 years of successful training over this incident,” Mr Stitt said.
Mr Stitt argued Shannon Hope had over used legitimate substances, as opposed to intravenously administering cobalt chloride or another cobalt substance.
“You’ve got an overegging of the pudding,” he said.
As the first cobalt inquiry in Victorian thoroughbred racing, the Hopes’ case was viewed as a test of whether the declared cobalt raceday threshold of 200 micrograms per litre of urine was enforceable.
The submissions about penalty continue.