Trainer Peter Moody will sit out of training the next six months as penalty for presenting a horse to race under his care with cobalt in its system above the permitted threshold.
The suspension handed down by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board was actually 12 months, but if Moody doesn't commit a similar offence for a year, he will not have to serve the remaining six months. The horse in question, Lidari (Fr) (Acclamation {GB}), has also been stripped of his second-place finish in the 2014 G1 Turnbull S., the race for which he returned a cobalt reading above the permitted limit.
The RAD Board reached the verdict after Racing Victoria stewards asked for a two-year ban, and Moody's legal team pushed for a fine.
His suspension begins midnight Mar. 24 and Moody could still taste Group 1 success before he goes out when he saddles Flamberge (Aus) (Exceed and Excel {Aus}) in Saturday's G1 Galaxy H. at Rosehill.
“I'm a bit numb really,” Moody told reporters. “It gives me a possibility of saving my business, in some way, shape or form. I'll go home, I'll have a chat to my wife, my family and my legal team before we decide the next step. I've always indicated strongly that I won't go through an appeal process, I want this matter ended today.”
As for how he could salvage his business over the six months, Moody said, “We have seven days to sort it out. We have some 300 horses on our books, a lot of clients to meet and discuss options with, but first and foremost I'll meet with my chief financial officer, my wife, and discuss it further with my legal team overnight.”
“Disqualification, I think it's very cruel for someone in our industry–it's the only thing I've done since I was 10 years old,” Moody added. “If I got disqualified, I'm unemployable. [I'm] 46 years old and don't know how to do anything else. Suspension gives me the opportunity to still participate in the industry.”
Moody said one of the first courses of action will be deciding what to do with his wife Sarah's some 70 horses in training.
“My wife races some 70 horses, so there probably wouldn't be too many bigger horse owners in Australia, let alone Victoria, so that's an ultimate decision we'll make collectively,” he said.
“She'll have to make the decision on what she does with her horses, or what we do collectively and put something towards the clientele of Moody Racing with a view to whether it can be held together for a six-month period.”
Moody is best known as the trainer of unbeaten world champion sprinter Black Caviar (Aus) (Bel Esprit {Aus}), and he has also conditioned Horses of the Year Typhoon Tracy (Aus) (Red Ransom) and Dissident (Aus) (Sebring {Aus}). Moody ordered Black Caviar's back samples to be tested early in the cobalt saga to clear her name, and they came back clean. Moody said he did expect to return to the glory days of Black Caviar, but said this is not the way he wants his career to end.
“I can never replicate what I went through, but I've certainly got the desire–I can't wait for my next winner,” he said. “I'd like to think that I've had a great career, racing has been terrific to me, I think there's an opportunity for it to be terrific to me again. I've always suggested that I'm not going to be a lifer when it comes to training, but I certainly want to go out on my terms, not someone else's, and that's not what has happened here today.”
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