The headlines are compelling – “racing’s darkest day” – “racing’s biggest scandal”.

Label the cheats – and that is what they are – “The Aquanita Eight” – and you’ve almost got the start of a movie – perhaps Ocean’s Eleven style, with Danny and Rusty putting together a rag tag squad to heist the Bellagio Casino, where the A8 were as ambitiously defrauding the industry that had fed them.

Judge John Bowman, in his not surprising findings of guilt against the A8, cast Robert Smerdon as George Clooney and Greg Nelligan as Rusty or vice versa.

“Smerdon along with Greg Nelligan could be described as the driving force behind the illegal top-ups conspiracy and he frequently gave instructions to Nelligan,” wrote Bowman in his judgment.

“The Aquanita case involves probably the biggest scandal and the most widespread investigation in the history of Australian racing,” he would say.

There was a “litany of brazen attempts to cheat and to obtain an unfair advantage over many years by a well organised team.”

The fatuous babble that the term “top-ups” referred to just food and water was rightly dismissed by Bowman as “palpable nonsense”.

Against such charges – all 271 of them – there can be no defence.

In fact, there wasn’t any – unless you take Liam Birchley’s bizarre – paraphrased as “I was on the piss and can’t remember the texts to a bloke I barely knew in Greg Nelligen” – as anything more than ill-advised – given the weight of evidence hanging the noose via 70,0000 brazen text messages.

As Judge Bowman read into finding: “We would add that we consider Mr Birchley’s credit to have been destroyed in cross-examination.”

Bowman and his Racing Appeals Disciplinary Board will deliver penalties after submissions tomorrow. Already Smerdon and Nelligan (and wife Denise) have given themselves life bans which are likely to be reflected in being warned off racetracks and from the industry for life tomorrow.

Bans and fines, length and quantum, against the other eight will rightly be severe. Cheating once is enough (Smerdon has walked away after 115 race day treatment charges, Nelligan was found guilty on 123 counts wife Denise 13) but Trent Pennuto (4), Stuart Webb (3), Tony Vasil (7), Danny Garland (2) and Birchley are all culpable of breaching one of racing’s most serious rules.

No-one wants to be called a cheat, but that is what the A8 team did, systematically, routinely, overtly, almost proudly.

Which brings to the table some of the unanswered questions that breath on from this case, while the other elephant in the room remains the ‘topped-up” horses and if they retain race placings and prizemoney.

Racing Victoria was quick to hail the outcome as a “victory’ for their Integrity Department.

“It also is a ringing endorsement of the investigative work of our Integrity Services team who found these breaches and ran an exhaustive four-month investigation before laying charges against these eight people,” said RV CEO Giles Thompson.

“Our primary objective is to uphold the integrity of the sport and to enforce the rules of racing to ensure that every horse is able to compete on a level playing field and we have continued to invest in better systems and capability to achieve this.”

The Epsom Road mantra is all “level playing field” and “without fear or favour”. It has extended to the Racing Minister Martin Pakula – who could them into one sentence claiming the result a big win for the industry Martin Pakula – was a big win for industry saying the Integrity department had prosecuted and obtained guilty verdicts sending a clear message to those in the industry that they operate “without fear or favour to provide a level playing field.”

Observers were right to point out how the A8 operated on their own unlevel playing field for 7 years without fearing the RV Integrity Department in any way. As was noted in finding by Judge Bowman, Nelligan forwarded photographs of steward’s cars to Smerdon and Webb to allay concerns about any surveillance.

Much speculation is how finally RV “got their men” or “cracked the code” or invaded the “circle of trust”. Bowman found that Nelligan’s wife Denise was the one that ‘blew the whistle on the whole top-ups saga”, but that was only after Nelligan’s phone had been seized

Or has been speculated, did the RV Integrity team on the day when Nelligan was found treating Lovani at Flemington, take Smerdon’s phone and return it to him – without taking any information (image). And is that the case, and if so, why so, and who was being protected, if not, say so and why.

RV, which spends over $8m a year on its integrity department, might do well to regain confidence with the public and participants and provide their fabled level playing field, by reviewing then revealing the chain of events that allowed the A8 squad to fester and then be found, exposed, and prosecuted to eliminate this cheating from the industry that they protect.

There was no singing canary in the A8 team as has been suggested, so did someone within the RV Integrity team “go rogue” so to speak, to expose the fraud? These are merely speculations and some musings, but until they can be cleared and answered, they will continue, and faith will remain tarnished.

Add to that the drums beating harder and faster than Matt Helders behind the Arctic Monkeys that current RV chief steward Terry Bailey is off to Singapore – and soon.

And all RV CEO Thompson will say is ‘yes, he has heard the rumours, yes Terry has heard the rumours, and yes we have all heard the rumours” but says he won’t be making any comment. Hardly giving any confidence that Bailey will continue to lead his much vaunted (by them) RV Integrity team at a time when Jamie Stier has returned from a stellar stint internationally to assume the former Dayle Brown job as executive general manager of Integrity Services.

And if it is the case Bailey leaves, who will assume the lead role – replaced from within, or lure a Mark van Gestel from New South Wales? Another question that RV needs to address rather than just lip service. If he is going, announce it, if he is staying, confirm it.

And does this A8 case continue? Birchley had already flagged via his legal counsel he is off the VCAT to challenge Tuesday’s finding of guilt. And herein lies another number of other issues.

“We strongly believe the stewards did not have sufficient evidence to support their case and Mr Birchley continues to maintain the charges were unsubstantiated,” Travis Schultz said on his behalf, seemingly ignoring the damning finding by the RADB.

“My client has instructed me to continue to vigorously defend the charges and we look forward to lodging an appeal as soon as this hearing concludes.”

This had led to speculation that VCAT may be able to see Smerdon, Nelligan and others subpoenaed to appear and finally the dirty laundry aired.

My understanding is good luck, via a view of the Evidence Act 2008 where VCAT can subpoena witnesses and documents if relevant. It has been written failure to appear could lead to prison terms. Take a breath and get some legal advice.

It is also the understanding that any person is entitled to exclusion from appearance if any such appearance or documentation would incriminate themselves. And further, no failure to answer a question can lead to any adverse inference being drawn.

Which is to say it is the belief that VCAT is not governed by the rules of the Evidence Act, hence it cannot over-ride it.

But time will tell – post penalty tomorrow- if VCAT will have a role to play in this case moving forward, despite Birchley’s flagging he is heading there, despite the finding against him (and all others) but then that is his and their legal right but hardly a “merry” outcome it would seem.

In the meantime, Pakula is understood to be ready to introduce legislation into the Victorian parliament that will basically enable the key recommendations of the (Paul) Bittar report he commissioned in 2016 to oversea the Victorian Racing Industry (three codes) integrity structure.

Put simply it means an amendment of the Racing Act 1958 to provide:

• The establishment of a new vehicle, the Victorian Racing Integrity Unit (VRIU), responsible for the delivery of integrity services across the three codes of racing; and
• The restructuring of the appeals and disciplinary system to remove the appeal to the Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (VCAT) of decisions by RADB and to establish a single cross-code Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board (RADB).

Perhaps in the fallout of all things Integrity around this A8 case and of course the on-going cobalt cases, some direction from the top could ensure and return faith to that “level playing field”.

Of course, RV would have taken some solace from Justice Garde’s rulings re the VCAT costs of running their case against trainers Danny O’Brien and Mark Kavanagh – which basically said “fair play” both side pay their own costs, but the industry is entitled to know the multi-million dollar legal bill incurred for a $12,000 return in fines, in the interest of transparency.

The trainers are now on the path of civil action against Flemington Equine Centre and vet Dr Tom Brennan, which Garde and Supreme Court Appeal judges had found acted without their knowledge in administering vitamin drips that led to the cobalt positives and in turn business churning outcomes after charges and the extraordinarily long winded inquiry with many more questions raised over integrity methods still not addressed or answered.

So, while the industry can be satisfied some blatant cheats are on the way out, and rightly so and for a long time, the steps towards providing that level playing field via the RV Integrity Department (and those who run it, lead it and its on-going structure) who will perform without fear or favour with the respect of all participants and punters, still has some satisfying to do. There is still plenty to see here. And questions to ask and answer.

By Bruce Clark