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.
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Flemington Equine centre vet, Tom Brennan, obtained the substance from a colleague and added it to IV drips used on horses.
One O’Brien trained horse which failed a cobalt test, De Little Engine, won the first race at the Ballarat Cup meeting in 2014.
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 Disciplinary Board hearing.
"I turfed it into a skip bin. I wasn't thinking straight."
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. Brennan said he was in a panic trying to protect himself, the Flemington Equine Clinic and the trainers.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.
The inquiry earlier heard Brennan had made a mistake by providing IV drips containing cobalt to the horses trained by O'Brien and Kavanagh.
Brennan said there was innuendo about a trainer using IV vitamin drips and there was always pressure to access the latest veterinary products. Brennan said O'Brien had made an electronic transfer of $3000 to his bank account who paid the Flemington clinic's junior partner Dr Adam Matthews who in turn had sourced a bottle of vitamins from Canada that had been used in harness racing circles. O'Brien used the drips until late December.
The barrister representing Kavanagh and O'Brien earlier said Racing Victoria stewards as well as the trainershad been deceived by Brennan.
"We don't dispute that Brennan didn't know that the bottles contained cobalt, it was his conduct from (the) fourteenth of January," Damian Sheales QC said. "He's been kryptonite to everyone."
Sheales said his clients had been consistent with their evidence to stewards throughout the investigation.
With AAP
