Eight horse racing professionals have been found guilty of doping offences in what has been called the biggest scandal to hit the sport in Australia.<\/p>\n
A tribunal found the five trainers and three stablehands had given banned race-day treatments to horses before more than 100 races.<\/p>\n
It had involved “a litany of brazen attempts to cheat” over a seven-year period from 2010, the tribunal said.<\/p>\n
The trainers and stablehands face fines and lengthy bans from the sport.<\/p>\n
The eight – trainers Robert Smerdon, Stuart Webb, Tony Vasil, Liam Birchley and Trent Pennuto, and stablehands Daniel Garland, Greg Nelligan and his wife Denise Nelligan – were all linked to the now-defunct Aquanita Racing stable.<\/p>\n
They faced a total of 271 charges at a racing tribunal in Victoria. None of the eight had pleaded guilty.<\/p>\n
Victoria’s Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board said the case “involves probably the biggest scandal and the most widespread investigation in the history of Australian racing”.<\/p>\n
The tribunal found the group had regularly dosed horses with a banned mixture involving sodium bicarbonate, or baking soda, before top-level races.<\/p>\n
The alkaline mixes, known as “top-ups”, were used to reduce the build-up of lactic acid in the horses, allowing them to run for longer without tiring.<\/p>\n
Racing Victoria launched an investigation in October after Greg Nelligan was caught inserting a syringe into the mouth of a mare, Lovani, before a Group 1 event at Flemington Racecourse in Melbourne.<\/p>\n
Authorities then found more than 1,000 text messages on Mr Nelligan’s phone that implicated Smerdon, Webb, Vasil, Birchley, Pennuto, Garland and Denise Nelligan.<\/p>\n
“The Aquanita case represents one of the darkest and longest chapters in the history of the Australian turf,” the board wrote in its decision.<\/p>\n
“There has been dishonest, corrupt or fraudulent, improper or dishonourable actions of the highest order.”<\/p>\n
Penalty submissions for the group will be heard on Thursday.<\/p>\n
Source: bbc.co.uk<\/a><\/p>\n","protected":false},"excerpt":{"rendered":"