By: Andrew Eddy

Trainer Mark Kavanagh said it was a ridiculous notion that he would take on a new product from a veterinarian who could not vouch for the contents of the product, VCAT heard on Monday.

Kavanagh, who is the final witness to be called in the cobalt appeal hearing that has lasted 22 days, said that his former vet Dr Tom Brennan was a liar when he claimed he told Kavanagh he could not guarantee what was in a vitamin mix that he was going to administer to his horses via a drip.

“It’s just a lie,” he told Justice Greg Garde. “When you employ a vet, they are told from the start that we do not use any unguaranteed products.

“It’s nothing short of a ridiculous allegation. I can’t believe he even said it.”

Kavanagh is appealing a three-year disqualification for one cobalt positive while fellow Flemington trainer Danny O’Brien is appealing a four-year term.

Kavanagh on Monday said Brennan had lied when he told the tribunal in August that he had explained to Kavanagh that a vitamin complex mix had been sourced from Canada and would aid in the recovery of his horses.

The trainer said fellow Flemington Equine Clinic vet Dr Ian Church had also lied when he said Kavanagh had been told the product had been introduced by FEC vet Dr Adam Matthews and that it had been used with success by ‘harness guys’.

But Kavanagh told the tribunal he knew nothing about a vitamin complex mix that the vets claimed was added to the mix of vitamins and minerals that were being given to some of his horses via an IV drip.

“He (Brennan) explained they (drips) would be multi vitamins which would be a similar sort of mixture as what would have been in a saline drench,” Kavanagh said.

Kavanagh denied the allegation from Brennan that he had paid him money for the new drip regime and dismissed a claim from Sydney-based vet Dr Amy Kelly that Kavanagh’s son Sam had told her that his father ceased using the drips after just a few weeks after one of his best horses Magicool was displaying colic-like symptoms after receiving a drip.

The hearing continues this afternoon.