Lee & Shannon Hope

JudgeHolden wrote: subastral wrote: 3blindmice wrote: Have yet to hear anyone argue that cobalt's use is for any other reason than performance enhancement irrespective of its effectiveness.      But some are arguing about its effectiveness or lack thereof, which isn't really the point is it. What??!? You frame a rule based on the fact that it's a performance enhancing substance, but you have no idea and don't care whether or not it's performance enhancing? Perhaps we need a new category of charge- those who "think" they're cheating. We're a long way down the rabbit hole now, Alice.

sub please read this. Just TODAY more cobalt irregularities in QLD, this time Coominya trainer Lynn Paton:

JudgeHolden wrote: JudgeHolden wrote: 3blindmice wrote: The threshold had little to do with Smith's charges. His trangressions were pre threshold. While RV has fiddled around RNSW went for the jugular and successfully prosecuted their case on the basis of existing rules. 3BM, what did you make of the Moses case?  To clarify, they didn't even charge him with administration. He got off with a fine.

JudgeHolden wrote: sub please read this. Just TODAY more cobalt irregularities in QLD, this time Coominya trainer Lynn Paton: http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/local-sport/trainer-speaks-out-after-becoming-the-latest-to-be-embroiled-in-cobalt-scandal/story-fnj94izo-1227616422756 Now I'm prepared to concede the possibility this woman is a lying cheat who despite all the recent controversy was dumb enough to inject her horse with Cobalt Chloride the morning of a race. Do you concede the possibility she may be telling the truth?

3blindmice wrote: JudgeHolden wrote: sub please read this. Just TODAY more cobalt irregularities in QLD, this time Coominya trainer Lynn Paton: http://www.goldcoastbulletin.com.au/sport/local-sport/trainer-speaks-out-after-becoming-the-latest-to-be-embroiled-in-cobalt-scandal/story-fnj94izo-1227616422756 Now I'm prepared to concede the possibility this woman is a lying cheat who despite all the recent controversy was dumb enough to inject her horse with Cobalt Chloride the morning of a race. Do you concede the possibility she may be telling the truth? While it's possible that relative innocents/ignoramuses might be being caught in the net, given the current environment any trainer with a modicum of common sense wouldn't be using supplements containing anything more than trace cobalt. If thousands of others can comply why can't she is the question which needs to be asked.

15 bucks is a bit out of my league sub. It's usually the stuff I find between the seats of the Sigma that I'm launching with.

that Doing Our Best that tested positive, that had a positive when he was with Weiry. Horse must love the drugs

Lee and Shannon Hope have been granted a stay of proceedings allowing them to continue training until an appeal against their respective disqualifications is heard, with a date set for February 8.

The father-son training partnership has taken matters to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT), after Lee (three years) and Shannon (five years) were handed bans by the Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board on November 17.

The Hopes were found guilty of deliberately administering cobalt for the purpose of affecting performance to three horses - Windy Citi Bear, Best Suggestion and Choose.

A five-day hearing has been set starting on Monday, February 8, with the Hopes permitted to train pending the determination of the appeal.

Racing Victoria stewards opposed the granting of a stay order.

VCAT will review the RAD Board's decision to find Lee and Shannon Hope guilty of administering a prohibited substance to three horses, and also of the decision to disqualify them for three and five years respectively.

Racing.com

Penalty was listed for Friday VCAT... not published online and no media coverage....
all I can say is mandatory penalties are ridiculous

Very weird. Two horses running today under D Bourne
Would he even know what they look like?
Been training them for 5 minutes

But not all horses btw

VCAT approves restricted trainer’s licence for Dierdre Hope, wife of the disqualified Shannon Hope

Dierdre Hope, the wife of disqualified trainer Shannon Hope, has been granted approval to train up to six horses at the family’s stable in Seymour.

As part of the conditions, granted by a Victorian Civil & Administrative Tribunal’s order on Wednesday, she will not be able to live within two kilometres of the stable.

Hope must not trade under the name “Hope Racing Pty Ltd” or let her husband, Shannon, have access to any paperwork, documentation and/or computers associated with the horses.

The Hopes were notified on Wednesday of the VCAT ruling, following a four-month legal battle with Racing Victoria.

Father-and-son training partners Lee and Shannon Hope were disqualified last January for three years for taking three horses to the races with elevated cobalt levels back in 2014.

Dierdre Hope applied for a restricted trainer licence following the sanction, but was denied under Rule AR 182 (3) of the Rules of Racing:

“ … no person who in the opinion of the Principal Racing Authority is a close associate of a disqualified person shall be permitted to train any horse.”

But Hope successfully appealed Racing Victoria’s decision at VCAT under strict conditions, which also include:

— No more than six horses “in training” at any one time.

— Not to train or have licenced training premises within two kilometres of where Deirdre and Shannon live.

— Not to race in the family’s racing colours (red and blue hoops, white sleeves).

— Not to be employed by any company in which Carol Shinn (father-in-law Lee’s partner) holds shares.

Hope’s Newcastle-based lawyer Paul O’Sullivan on Wednesday welcomed the landmark ruling as “the first real test of what is a close associate”.

“Her desire is to start training at the earliest possible time,” O’Sullivan said.

“It’s consistent with her working her whole life in the racing industry and being impeccably qualified to train.”

Racing Victoria must issue Hope a restricted trainer licence following VCAT member Wendy Boddison’s order.

In coming to the decision, Boddison was satisfied the “image, interests, integrity and welfare of racing” would not be impacted by the “small-scale operation”.

Racing Victoria has 28 days to decide whether or not to launch a Supreme Court appeal.

This decision stinks and I hope RVL appeal the decision.

To argue the point about what is a close associate is just legal drivel.

You can't get a much closer association than your wife.

VCAT is a joke!

This decision is just another slap in the face to RVL and it's right to apply the rules of racing for the betterment of racing.

I get sick of the cheats finding ways around the rules of racing and all it does is confirm to the general public that racing is rotten to the core and nothing changes.

Every day all we seem to hear is who else is cheating in the racing industry around Australia and how many years does it take to to bring some of these people to justice.

So according to you then a rule of racing about close associates can never be applied because it discriminates against any one?
Then this rule should be removed as irrelevant.

6 horses is not the point to me but perhaps point 3 in the decision is. It says basically that she can review this number and appeal at sometime in the future.

Also you seem to know for a fact that B12 was the source of the high Cobalt readings. Were you there to know that it was not Cobalt administration but B12 administration that caused this?
If not,then your belief cannot be proven one way or the other.

To play off the O'Sullivan case against the Hope case because of the relative size of the Cobalt readings is a furphy as far as D. Hope getting a license but it does highlight an inconsistency in the length of the penalty given.

Second meeting back at the races and Lee has found his way to the winners stall with Richter