Closing submissions in Vic cobalt case

A judge will have to decide whether evidence from a vet who gave a Melbourne Cup winning trainer’s horses cobalt is reliable.

Trainers Mark Kavanagh and Danny O’Brien are fighting their disqualifications in a Victorian tribunal after five horses returned cobalt positives.

Dr Tom Brennan told the tribunal Kavanagh and O’Brien knew he was adding the substance to drips given to horses in their stables and they each paid $3000 for three bottles of it.

The pair deny knowing cobalt was in the drips.

“Maintaining a consistent and plausible lie about these events is proving quite beyond O’Brien and Kavanagh,” Racing Victoria barrister Jeff Gleeson QC said in his closing submissions on Wednesday.

But Judge Greg Garde questioned how much weight he could give to Brennan’s evidence, given it had changed throughout the investigation.

Kavanagh was given a three-year ban and O’Brien was given a four-year ban after the cobalt positives.

After 23 days of evidence, closing submissions in the case are being heard in the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal.