By: Racing.Com Staff

Wodonga trainer Brian Cox has been found guilty on eight charges relating to the administration and possession of Nitrotain, and giving false or misleading evidence to stewards.

The Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board sat on Wednesday, with Judge John Bowman delivering a short summary of the 41-page document citing the reasons for the decision.

Cox had pleaded guilty to three charges relating to possession of Nitrotain, but not guilty to the eight charges – four of them in the alternative – to administration.

But the RAD Board found him guilty of the four alternative charges, which concern ‘administration in a general sense’, and not specifically to a race.

The trainer also pleaded not guilty to giving ‘false or misleading evidence’, but that charge was also proven in favour of the stewards.

Submissions in regards to penalty will be made on Tuesday November 15.

Cox’s vet Dr Robert Fielding was also found guilty of two of the three charges levelled at him, found guilty in breach of Australian Rules of Racing 175(a) and 175(k).

Each of Cox and Fielding were charged in relation to ‘the attempted participation’ of the horse Cochrane’s Gap in a jumpout at Wangaratta on December 9, 2015.

In the charge against Cox in relation to Cochrane’s Gap, it was stated that he presented the horse at Wangaratta, failing ‘to exercise reasonable care so as to prevent an act of cruelty’.

But Bowman dismissed those separate charges quickly, on the basis that the horse did not participate in the jumpout.

However, in the reasons for decision, it was noted ‘the fact of the matter is that Cochrane’s Gap did not participate in the jumpout because it would not load’.