An illegal cobalt positive drug test is the one thing we had all hoped would not appear in New Zealand.
Even after positive cobalt inquiries pending around such high-profile Australian trainers as Peter Moody, Danny O'Brien, Mark and Sam Kavanagh and Lee and Shannon Hope, it came as a thunderbolt that a horse trained by former champion jockey Lance O'Sullivan has come up positive to the banned substance.
O'Sullivan said he and training partner Andrew Scott were as shocked as everyone that one horse from the famous Wexford Stables had a cobalt positive and two others were under investigation.
"Of course, it's extremely worrying how this could have happened,'' O'Sullivan said.
"This could be a time-consuming process, so at the moment it's business as usual at Wexford.''
Wexford's Quintastics returned a cobalt positive after her win at Matamata on March 11. The threshold level for cobalt is set in New Zealand and Australia at 200mcg per litre of urine. In Hong Kong, it is 100mcg.
Cobalt is a naturally occurring trace element in horses, but rarely above 10mcg. Veterinary opinion is that it would be extremely unusual for a thoroughbred to naturally produce a level above 50mcg and only "one in a million'' could get to 100mcg.
New Zealand's Integrity Unit has swabs analysed in Wellington, which are then sent to Perth for further investigation. The unit has advised it has sent two further Wexford stable samples to Perth, from Suffire, after her win at Tauranga on February 5, and from Derby third-placegetter Sound Proposition on February 28.
The Moody, O'Brien, Kavanagh and Hope positives are still under review, but New South Wales trainer Darren Smith was disqualified for 15 years after being found guilty on 42 charges related to horses returning illegal cobalt levels.
Smith admitted to buying a "bootleg'' cobalt supplement from a warned-off harness trainer.
Cobalt is a blood booster similar to EPO but, unlike EPO, it is a heavy metal poison with a serious toxicity element.
After even moderate use it is known to cause significant damage to horses.
Veterinarians in Australia are at pains to point out that horses do not need cobalt and that there has never been any report of cobalt deficiency in horses.
Cobalt is needed to produce vitamin B12, but a horse on a balanced diet gets enough dietary B12. However, if one wanted to give a supplement, it would be appropriate to use vitamin B12 directly, not cobalt, they said. -The New Zealand Herald
