SENIOR personnel at the Flemington Equine Clinic have denied threatening trainer Sam Kavanagh with bankruptcy if he named the company as the source of a cobalt product.
AAP reports that co-owner Dr Tom Brennan and the manager of the practice, Aaron Corby, have appeared before a Racing NSW stewards’ inquiry on Tuesday into an elevated cobalt level found in a swab taken from the Kavanagh-trained Midsummer Sun after he won the Gosford Gold Cup in January.
Brennan said they had not provided Kavanagh with two bottles of “Vitamin Complex” and was backed up by Corby.
The substance in the bottles was analysed and found to contain high levels of cobalt.
The evidence of Brennan and Corby contradicts that of Samantha Potter, an employee of the practice interviewed by Racing NSW stewards.
She said she had sent the bottles separately by express post and recorded the transaction in a notebook, which was now missing. Corby denied threatening Kavanagh with bankruptcy over a $70,000 debt owed to the practice and also denied telling the trainer to get rid of his mobile phone and computer.
Corby flew to Sydney from Melbourne a day after Kavanagh was notified of the cobalt test but said that was coincidental.
Kavanagh has told stewards he paid $1000 cash for each bottle.
Earlier, Brennan, co-owner of the Flemington Equine Clinic, denied supplying a product containing cobalt to Kavanagh or any other trainer.
Brennan refuted Potter’s evidence that she sent two bottles labelled “Vitamin Complex” by express post to Kavanagh at Rosehill.
Potter, a nutrition consultant with the Flemington Equine Clinic, said she had seen Brennan draw up a drip with the contents of a similar bottle and give it to horses at Danny O’Brien’s Flemington stable in September or October last year.
O’Brien, Kavanagh’s father Mark, Peter Moody and Lee and Shannon Hope are Victorian trainers under investigation by Racing Victoria stewards for elevated cobalt levels found in horses from their stables.
Notebooks which were supposed to contain records of all express post transactions were missing from the Flemington Equine Clinic and data was missing from Brennan’s mobile phone.
