A vet has admitted he threw away a bottle of Vitamin Complex the day he found out about positive cobalt readings in horses trained by Danny O’Brien and Mark Kavanagh.
Flemington Equine centre vet, Tom Brennan, obtained the substance from a colleague and added it to IV drips used on horses.
Brennan has maintained he did not know the Vitamin Complex contained high levels of cobalt.
“There was some (product) left in the bottle,” Brennan told the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board hearing into cobalt charges against the vet and the two trainers on Wednesday.
“I turfed it into a skip bin.
“I wasn’t thinking straight.
“I wish I had kept it.”
Brennan told the hearing he had kept the open bottle of Vitamin Complex in the fridge of his car and other unopened bottles in the vitamin cabinet.
He said he had disposed of the bottle about an hour after learning of positive cobalt readings to horses trained by O’Brien and Kavanagh.
O’Brien has pleaded not guilty to charges relating to four of his horses returning cobalt levels above the threshold of 200 micrograms per litre of urine while Kavanagh’s case centres around one horse.
The vet has pleaded guilty to all but one of the charges against him but not guilty to administering cobalt to enhance the performance of a horse in a race.
Brennan earlier told the hearing the role of a vet was something like a club doctor keeping athletes fit and on the park.
He said it was a mistake not to tell stewards of the Vitamin Complex and that he was aware of the three-year penalty attached to having a cobalt reading above the threshold.
Brennan said he was in a panic trying to protect himself, the Flemington Equine Clinic and the trainers.
“It started to snowball,” he said.
“I was in a situation where it wasn’t getting any better.
After initially telling Racing NSW stewards investigating high cobalt levels in a horse trained by Sam Kavanagh, Brennan admitted in July his evidence was false.
