Albury businessman Allan Endresz has likened the positive swab returned by his racehorse Alligator Blood to the circumstances which led to the nobbling of the country's most revered galloper Phar Lap.
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Alligator Blood's connections including Mr Endresz and trainer David Vandyke were rocked when the gelding had shown an irregularity to altrenogest following his $2 million Magic Millions Guineas (1400m) win at the Gold Coast in January.
Altrenogest is a prohibited substance in male horses under the Australian Rules of Racing and is a hormone treatment generally used to calm fillies and mares.
Mr Endresz ruled out a feed contamination issue because geldings and mares were separated at Vandyke's Sunshine Coast base.
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He strongly suspects the horse was nobbled, potentially by a former employee from his own business dealings which have been played out in courts for 20-plus years.
"We support David 100 per cent that there is no involvement of him giving Alligator Blood that substance," Mr Endresz said.
"There are probably some people out there who don't like me and there could be the element of it being a payback to me from a disgruntled employee or aspects of where there is a lot of betting money involved."
Alligator Blood is shaping as one of racing's next big things with a recent win in the Australian Guineas before being spelled after fading in the All-Star Mile at Caulfield last Saturday.
"We won't be sitting idly saying we are going to cop this," he said.
"But I do see some similarities with the circumstances which led to the death of Phar Lap.
"The country crawled out of the 1930s depression, there was despair, Phar Lap was a beacon of light and source of hope.
"We are entering into dangerous economic historical period of history (due to coronavirus)
"Unemployment is building, the stockmarket is crashing and to me Alligator Blood can give that release from the day-to-day pressures."
Alligator Blood has won close to $3 million in prizemoney and on the day he won at the Gold Coast in January the horse delayed in getting to the racecourse due to a motor accident on the freeway between Brisbane and the Gold Coast.
The race was delayed by 40 minutes, but Alligator Blood recovered sufficiently to win before heading to Victoria where he won twice and finished unplaced in the All-Star Mile.
Mr Endresz said one of the consequences of the positive swab was nervousness among slot holders hoping to have Alligator Blood represent them in The Everest.