Perna delivered his report to Racing Minister Martin Pakula and Harness Racing Victoria, determining the stewards’ panel took the correct course of action, in accordance with the rules of racing, in prohibiting the use of the sulkies.

In December, Perna began looking into the events leading up to runners being scratched – including six of the 10 acceptors in the group 1 Ballarat Pacing Cup – because of a crackdown by stewards on oversized sulkies.

Perna’s findings cited that there was no evidence noncompliant sulkies were ordered by trainers or drivers to be manufactured contrary to the standards or that the sulkies were later modified.

The report found that at one point Harness Racing Victoria management advised the stewards they were considering overruling the panel on Ballarat Pacing Cup night and, despite these approaches, stewards maintained their decision, but afforded the participants the opportunity to swap sulkies.

Perna found that legally and operationally, stewards could not have permitted the use of the oversized sulkies, but said there was a lack of timely communication to participants by the stewards and/or HRV management in relation to the detection of noncompliant sulkies and the decision to prohibit them. 

Among his eight recommendations, Perna asked the state government to reconsider a previous recommendation to amend the Racing Act 1958 to establish an independent body with responsibility for integrity across the three racing codes and remove such responsibility from the controlling bodies.