Cumani admits Bauer underwent treatment

Wednesday, 3 December 2008


Trainer Luca Cumani has conceded his Melbourne Cup runner-up Bauer underwent treatment on the Thursday before he contested Australia’s greatest race which is currently under investigation by Racing Victoria Stewards.

Racing Victoria issued a statement this morning saying, “Racing Victoria Limited stewards are currently carrying out an investigation into the veterinary treatment Bauer received in the lead up to the 2008 Emirates Melbourne Cup”.

“These investigations are continuing and at this time the stewards are unable to comment any further in the matter,” the statement said.

“A formal inquiry will be scheduled when managing part-owner Mr Terry Henderson is expected to return from the UK on 11 December.

“The winning performance of Bauer in the Geelong Cup is not affected by this investigation.”

On Greg Radley’s raceday program on 2KY this morning, Cumani said the treatment in question was administered to the horse by a vet appointed by Racing Victoria.

“We had a slight issue with Bauer and he recommended the treatment and I said is that ok and he said ‘yep that’s fine’ and I said ok lets go ahead and he did the horse there and then and the horse was fine after that,” Cumani told Radley.

“It was basically a physiotherapy treatment that we were told was ok because we had to rely on the vet advise.”

The specific nature of the treatment is believed to be some form of shock wave treatment which under Australian Racing rules is not to be conducted on horses within seven days of contesting a race.

“This treatment is widely available in every racing country and it is only banned in England on raceday and I wasn’t aware that it would be an issue and the vet didn’t alert me that it would be an issue,” said Cumani.

“I took it that if he recommended it then it would be ok.

“He’s a local vet, he should know the local rules.”