O'Brien told his appeal he was rattled when he spoke to stewards
Danny O’Brien says he went into shock when a vet revealed he had added a substance called vitamin complex to drips given to horses in the Victorian trainer’s stables.
Dr Tom Brennan came clean in July last year and told stewards he gave the vitamin complex to horses in the O’Brien and Mark Kavanagh stables.
O’Brien told his appeal against his four-year cobalt disqualification he was rattled when he spoke to stewards after Brennan’s revelation.
“I had obviously that morning been given an absolutely unbelievable version of events from Dr Brennan that completely rattled me,” O’Brien said on Monday.
“I’ve just gone into shock.”
O’Brien said he had not heard about the bottles of vitamin complex before that time.
O’Brien paid $3000 to Brennan but said it was during a trial to administer vitamins, minerals and electrolytes through drips instead of saline drenches.
The payment was part of an understanding with Brennan that the trial would not become too expensive for owners, O’Brien told the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal on Monday.
Brennan has told the appeal O’Brien and Kavanagh knew he was adding the vitamin complex and they each paid $3000 for three bottles of it, but that none of them knew it contained cobalt.
The trainers did not know about the vitamin complex, their barrister has told VCAT.
