The conduct of senior Australian Turf Club executive Matt Rudolph in the Sam Kavanagh cobalt case has resulted in two-year ban from racing and also cost him his job.
A Racing NSW Board sub-committee last month found he had acted improperly and had tried to influence trainer Sam Kavanagh to change his evidence to stewards about the source of a substance containing high levels of cobalt.
Kavanagh named Melbourne vet Dr Tom Brennan, a long-time friend of Rudolph, as the supplier of “Vitamin Complex”.
Rudolph and Kavanagh’s father and fellow trainer Mark Kavanagh, met with Sam at a Sydney hotel where the younger Kavanagh said he was pressured to change his evidence about Brennan.
The sub committee said Rudolph’s position demanded a level of integrity at the highest end of the scale when it delivered the penalty on Wednesday.
The inquiry was sparked by illegal levels of cobalt found in a swab taken from Midsummer Sun after he won the Gosford Cup in January.
Sam Kavanagh and Brennan are among several people disqualified by Racing NSW stewards with the vet’s offences including giving false evidence to the inquiry.
