Em Maguane with driver John “The Bulldog” Nicholson.
A group of racing figures linked to Melbourne’s underworld has been juicing up harness racing horses with record doses of cobalt.
A Herald Sun investigation has exposed suspected links between the cobalt epidemic sweeping Australian racing, underworld figures, and racing’s synthetic EPO doping scourge.
The Herald Sun can reveal:
NSW harness racing horses registering massive cobalt readings are owned by figures of interest to Victorian detectives.
A veterinary clinic embroiled in the Racing Victoria probe into cobalt irregularities employs a man who was caught up in a harness racing EPO doping bust years ago.
The cobalt threat is so widespread, racing officials want to purchase a piece of scientific testing equipment that would allow them to test for cobalt locally. Now samples have to be sent interstate.
Close associate of the Moran family Paul Sequenzia attends tuesday’s Harness Racing enquiry
The Herald Sun has identified a Melbourne veterinary clinic as a key focus of the Racing Victoria probe into suspected cobalt misuse.
A vet from that clinic was caught up in the major Harness Racing Victoria inquiry into synthetic EPO positives in the pacer Em Maguane in 2009.
Harness racing stewards questioned the vet, as well as trainers and owners including Paul Sequenzia, a Melbourne gangland figure linked to the Mokbel clan.
A trainer and a stablehand were disqualified and the Veterinary Registration Practitioners Board of Victoria cautioned the vet for failing to keep records.
The vet yesterday said the record keeping failure did not relate to Em Maguane but a different horse, and insisted he had nothing to do with the cobalt saga as he did not service the stables involved.
The Herald Sun understands his clinic has come to the attention of Racing Victoria stewards examining cobalt positives in horses trained by some of the best in the business — Peter Moody, Danny O’Brien, Mark Kavanagh and Shannon Hope.
The trainers deny any wrongdoing and stewards say the cobalt positives in those cases were not dramatically above the permitted levels.
The trainers and the clinic are expected to strongly contest any charges brought by Racing Victoria.
Meanwhile, some of Australia’s first big cobalt readings were in NSW harness racing horses driven by Rhys Nicholson.
Rhys Nicholson’s father John “The Bulldog” Nicholson was part of the syndicate that owned Em Maguane, named after 1990s Collingwood football identity Mick Maguane.
Other syndicate members include Sequenzia, whose 2004 drug trafficking charge was later dropped and whom surveillance police had observed allegedly attending TABs with members of the Mokbel clan.
Rhys Nicholson was suspended from harness racing in NSW last March over high cobalt levels in multiple horses, one of which was 13 times over permitted levels.
Victorian detectives have been making inquiries about figures connected to those horses on a separate matter.
Those figures have a relative who was banned from NSW harness racing for allegedly passing cash between a punter and a trainer as part of an alleged race fix, but the ban was overturned on appeal.
The trainer in that case was last year disciplined for associating with a former trainer disqualified from NSW harness racing over his use of EPO.
That disqualified trainer stands accused of supplying a bottle of cobalt to a NSW harness trainer last year.
Racing officials in NSW and Victoria are also aware of a Queensland-based vet who travels up and down the east coast spruiking cobalt.
NSW harness officials were the first in the country to recognise the cobalt problem, which has since caught on in Victorian harness and thoroughbred racing.
Racing Victoria chief steward Terry Bailey said stewards intended to have the probe complete in about a month.
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