A behavioural scientist says four horses trained by Darren Weir and Jarrod McLean showed no signs of fear during or after their time being prodded while running on a treadmill.
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The four accused, former Warrnambool horse trainer Jarrod McLean, Melbourne Cup-winning trainer Darren Weir, stable hand Tyson Kermond and former jockey William Hernan, both of Warrnambool, appeared in the online division of Ballarat Magistrates' Court on Tuesday for the first day of a two-day committal hearing.
The four men are facing a combined 34 charges, with all but Hernan defending themselves against a charge of conspiracy to defraud.
Clinical ethologist and horse trainer Andrew McLean told the court he was contacted by Victoria Police on November 19, 2018, to provide his expert opinion on horse behaviour.
Dr McLean said he had a brief meeting with detectives in December that year before later viewing footage from the stables repeatedly over a period of about three-and-a-half hours.
He said the footage from October 30, 2018, showed horses being led on to a treadmill.
He said one horse "hesitated a little but nothing very serious".
He said there was no evidence the horses associated any fear with the treadmill.
Dr McLean agreed he didn't see "the slightest indication of a horse playing up on the treadmill in the footage".
He said he observed the use of a hand held prodder that he believed to be an electrical device.
He said he could only be 100 per cent sure there was an electric shock if he felt it himself but questioned why someone would use the device if not to shock the animals.
He said the horse could not run any faster than what the treadmill was set at but said the horse would have learned to stay in the one position and "endure whatever he has to endure on the treadmill".
He said the training would be "a lot safer" on the treadmill than on "the track with a jockey where it (the horse) could swerve".
Dr McLean said that in the footage, the horses were wearing blinkers, they were being tapped with a piece of poly pipe and there was a "random" whistling sound.
He said all of these things, as well as eliciting an electric shock, were examples of cues used in classical conditioning of horses in order to create associations and teach the horses to display specific behaviours to those commands and cues.
He said specific behaviours might include a horse "running to its ability".
Racing Victoria's chief steward Robert Cram told the court that following the October 30 footage, two of the horses, Yogi and Red Cardinal, raced in the Lexus Stakes Day and Melbourne Cup respectively.
He agreed there was "nothing unusual of those horses (behaviour) in those races".
He said he viewed the October 30 footage and was "highly confident" the person in the video was holding a device used to give an electric shock, known as a jigger.
Trainer Jarrod McLean's defence barrister Jason Gullaci said the defence was told cameras were in place at the stables from October 23.
But during the cross-examination of Senior Constable Matthew Don, who was involved in the execution of a search warrant at the stables, Mr Gullaci asked if the cameras were in place prior to that date.
The senior constable is expected to provide a response when the hearing continues on Wednesday.
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