A leading Sydney harness racing investigator said he was warned more than a year ago of the effects outlawed additive cobalt chloride can have on a horse - both its race-day performance and its physical welfare.
Reid Sanders, the integrity manager of Harness Racing New South Wales, said he had gained ''intelligence'' from within Australia and overseas that cobalt chloride was being used and then immediately established a testing regimen.
''We have a number of swabs under investigation at the moment,'' Sanders said. ''We had information from intelligence sources in Australia. And I have been having talks with people in Meadowlands [in the US]. After those inquiries, we then pressed ahead and began sending samples to be tested, you could say a world first.''
Sanders said that investigators couldn't ''live in glass houses'' and had to seek out intelligence from around the country if stewards were going to eradicate drug cheats.
''In my understanding of cobalt, I have two major concerns,'' he said. ''If cobalt is to be misused, it can affect the outcome of a race and then we also have a duty of care to the direct welfare of the horse itself.''
Since Sanders took over as head of integrity at Harness Racing New South Wales in 2011 the steward has overseen 47 drug-related hearings, including the discovery of arsenic in 2011 on Miracle Mile runner Raglan. Connections were later banned for six months.
Sanders said that he and his panel of stewards attempted to test 20 per cent of horses contesting race meetings across the state.
The integrity department in 2011 at Harness Racing NSW was on the point of collapse after charges of corruption were levelled against members of the stewards panel.
One steward was discovered accepting money for not swabbing race winners, a point not lost on Sanders. ''You could say we were coming off a low base, but we have been extremely active apprehending drug cheats since,'' he said.
Harness Racing New South Wales has established its own threshold level for cobalt at 200 micrograms a litre. In Hong Kong, the threshhold is 100 micrograms a litre.
Fairfax Media understands that tests uncovered in NSW have revealed horses with levels exceeding 3500.
''At the moment, we have a threshold of 200 micrograms per litre,'' Sanders said. ''That's not a figure set in stone and we can revise it at any time when we see the need to change.''
Racing authorities have been deeply concerned that the new drug that stimulates the body to produce more erythropoietin is being used by trainers in Australia.
Victorian chief steward Terry Bailey said there had been extensive testing for cobalt chloride and racing authorities were on high alert in Melbourne and Sydney.
Cobalt chloride can be given to horses as a powder or a feed supplement, or it can be injected.
