As Lovani, the horse that sparked the biggest racing scandal in recent memory, prepares to return to the track for her new trainer at Rosehill on Saturday, Victorian racing minister Martin Pakula has publicly questioned Racing Victoria's integrity unit.
As text messages from the brief in the Aquanita inquiry continue to be made public, Pakula made his thoughts clear on Melbourne radio.
"There is no doubt that integrity in the past has not been as strong as it should be," he said. "There is no doubt integrity has been on a journey and it has improved over time.
"We need to be careful that we don't judge the integrity department of 2018 based on a text message from September 2010.
"Things have changed quite dramatically, in the way things are done, over that eight-year period."
Victorian stewards finally broke down the doping ring when Aquanita staff were caught giving Lovani a pre-race treatment on Turnbull Stakes day in October.
The four-year-old mare will return to the track in Saturday's Millie Fox Stakes for Hawkesbury trainer Brad Widdup, who had no idea of her infamy when he was asked to train her.
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"I just looked at her form and thought she was a good horse for a young trainer like me to get," Widdup said. "She was group-placed and looked to be a very nice mare.
"And to get a chance for Kia Ora Stud was a massive opportunity for me.
"Then I started to get calls from Melbourne journalists about it and worked out what was going on.
"I'm not interested in her past, more in her future."
However, it is the past that has racing in Victoria spiralling as the latest text messages released implied the doping ring had prior knowledge horses were going to be pre-race tested in 2010. A series of messages allegedly between stable worker Greg Nelligan and an unnamed trainer discussed a runner at Geelong.
The trainer, who has not been charged, allegedly texted Nelligan five hours before the horse in question, Trisara, was to run.
"No test race 9 no 12 2day," the text said.
Nelligan responded: "No test at all or no late blood?"
The trainer replied: "He say no test blood."
Trisara, trained by Aquanita's Tony Vasil, was not tested pre-race and ran third. It was also implied horses had been tubed in trucks on the way to races.
Pakula said the scandal disgusted him and he wanted answers.
"At some point in the future … I'm sure Racing Victoria and the integrity department will be asking themselves these questions about why … people were able to allegedly carry on in this way for so long without detection," Pakula said.
"It's a really, really serious question and no doubt one the new director of racing and integrity, Jamie Stier, will pay a great deal of attention to when he commences in the job in a couple of months' time."
Racing Victoria chief executive Giles Thompson said he would not bow to increasing pressure to make public the brief of evidence in the case.
"Our integrity team gathered a considerable amount of evidence, including text messages, across an exhaustive four-month investigation, which led to multiple charges being laid last month against eight people," he said in a statement.
"In accordance with standard legal practice and in the interests of natural justice, the stewards' brief of evidence was shared with those charged, who will have the right to defend themselves before the independent Racing Appeals and Disciplinary (RAD) Board from 30 April.
"It would be totally inappropriate for us to publish evidence prior to that disciplinary hearing and we do not intend to do so. Under no circumstances do we wish to prejudice the conduct of this case."
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