The appeal of trainers Mark Kavanagh and Danny O'Brien against charges for presenting horses to race with cobalt overages reached a critical point in Victoria on Tuesday when Racing Victoria Chief Steward Terry Bailey took to the witness stand.
The basis of the case presented by Damian Sheales, counsel for both trainers, is that the labs in Western Australia and Hong Kong where the horses' samples were tested were not accredited for testing cobalt in urine. Bailey said he did not know the laboratories were not accredited.
Also taking the stand on Tuesday was Charles Russo, Chief of Western Australia's lab Chemcentre, who put accreditation labels on cobalt certificates despite having knowledge that the lab was not yet accredited. Chemcentre later became accredited in November 2014, but Russo said he put the labels on with the knowledge that the facility would soon be accredited.
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