Racing Victoria’s head vet says the “overwhelming” science shows cobalt can act as a doping agent and is performance enhancing.
Dr Brian Stewart was the driver behind Victoria’s cobalt threshold and told the regulator’s board cobalt salts had the effect of a doping agent in horses.
Stewart said that had been unquestionably proven in animal experimentation studies, although there were no equine-specific studies.
“My opinion was under the right circumstances it would act as a doping agent,” Stewart told a cobalt appeal on Thursday.
“In specific quantities at the correct time at the right frequency of administration, it is my opinion that it would act as a doping agent.”
Racing Victoria brought in a cobalt threshold in April 2014, ahead of the national rule in January 2015.
Stewart said his view had not changed that cobalt administered in appropriate doses had the effect of a doping agent.
“The fundamental science is overwhelming,” he said.
Four Victorian trainers’ appeal against their cobalt disqualifications heard a Racing NSW lawyer had said the regulator no longer maintained that cobalt was performance enhancing.
Stewart said that may be a legal proposition but he and his counterpart at Racing NSW, Dr Craig Suann, still believed the science showed it was performance enhancing.
“The science was still held by Craig and I and the rest of the scientific community that cobalt is a very significant potential performance enhancer.”
Trainers Danny O’Brien, Mark Kavanagh and Lee and Shannon Hope are trying to have their cobalt disqualifications overturned by the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.