NSW Racing chief steward Ray Murrihy warned witnesses to leave their egos behind when the More Joyous inquiry resumed on Monday.
Rugby league legend Andrew Johns is first to give evidence on Monday, while former jockey Allan Robinson and brothel owner Eddie Hayson are also due to front the inquiry into allegations over the performance of More Joyous at Randwick last month.
“I want to make this very clear: egos should be left outside,” Mr Murrihy told the packed room.
“There is not to be any name-calling, this is an investigation stage … There must be proper decorum as we go forward.”
The inquiry was sparked after More Joyous’s owner John Singleton accused bookmaker Tom Waterhouse of telling people the horse could not win the All Aged Stakes after receiving information from his mother, the horse’s trainer Gai Waterhouse.
Johns says he spoke with Tom Waterhouse days before the All Aged Stakes on April 27 and compared notes on the weekend’s racing and rugby league events.
“I asked him `what about the weekend, what do you like on the weekend?'” Johns told the inquiry, referring to which horse might win the All Aged Stakes.
“He said he didn’t like It’s A Dundeel, More Joyous and All Too Hard.”
But Johns said he was mistaken when he reported that Waterhouse used the word “off” to describe the horse.
“Tom never spoke about the health of the horse, he never said the word ‘off’,” Johns testified.
“It was a mistake, I was very agitated, and I didn’t even realise I said that until I … heard it on the radio.”
Johns said he could “swear on my life” that he never used the word “off” when he relayed his conversation with Waterhouse to Singleton, shortly before the race.
But he was unsure of whether he had used the word when he spoke to Hayson, because he had about four to six beers before that conversation, he said.
The highly fancied More Joyous ran second last in the race.
Johns said after he told Singleton that Tom Waterhouse “didn’t like” More Joyous to win, the owner pressed him on whether he was now uncertain enough about the horse that he would no longer be willing to place a large bet on her in the upcoming race.
“I said I don’t bet hundreds of thousands; he said ‘answer the question’,” Johns said.
“I said, no.”
During a telephone conversation with Singleton on the Saturday night after the race, Johns said the businessman was “fired up”.
“It was more to do with the relationship between himself and Mrs Waterhouse … He was going to take all his horses off her tomorrow,” Johns said.
It was not until the following morning that he realised he had been linked to the high-profile falling-out between Singleton and his longstanding trainer.
“I woke up and saw the paper, with my name and a big picture of myself,” he said.
“I couldn’t believe it.”
The inquiry heard Singleton learned from Robinson that More Joyous could not lower her head to eat grass after the former jockey was told by Hayson, who had been told by Johns.
Johns said he did not realise he was the starting point in that chain of communication until days later.
Despite 12 telephone contacts between Johns and Hayson over the weekend in question, Johns said he never asked whether Hayson had relayed their conversation to anyone else.
Johns said he “couldn’t have been more direct” in his conversation with Singleton but apologised for having possibly “exaggerated” when he spoke to others now embroiled in the scandal.
“I’m not certain what I said to Mr Hayson at the rugby league on Friday night and then the Chinese whispers, as it’s been reported, has gone from there,” he said.
“I’m incredibly sorry … I was devastated that somehow I’ve inadvertently caused the drama that went on, that is still going on 16 days after the event.”
Johns said he feared his job with the Nine Network was in the balance because the network had significant commercial arrangements with Tom Waterhouse, and he had told Singleton he felt he would become “collateral damage” as the scandal unfolded.