Leading syndicator Dean Watt has armed himself with the same legal team that represented Gai Waterhouse in the More Joyous affair, vowing to go as "far as we can physically go" to appeal against $20,000 in fines handed down by Racing NSW stewards on Tuesday.
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Watt described the severity of the fines as "ridiculous" after penalties were handed down to the Dynamic Syndications boss and his son Adam over domains they established in the names of some of the syndicator's rivals.
Stewards alleged the Watts created pages in the name of Chris Waller, who Dynamic Syndications still race horses with, and rival syndicator Triple Crown that would link directly to his company.
But Watt said he had not done anything illegal and he would continue to use Philip Beazley, who Waterhouse employed in the drawn-out More Joyous saga last year, to clear his name. He lodged an immediate appeal after the fines were announced on Tuesday.
Watt pointed to other fines handed out in the past year as lenient compared with the findings in the Dynamic Syndications case, which were described "at the lower end of the scale" by stewards.
John Singleton was slapped with a $15,000 fine over the More Joyous affair for bringing racing into disrepute and $8000 in fines were handed out to two Australian Bloodstock directors over false representations made about the ownership of imported galloper Hathras.
"All I'll say is, we're going as far as we can physically go with it," Watt said. "Our appeal was very simply lodged that we're not guilty of the offences found. We're prepared to go as far as it takes. As far as it can go, we're prepared to go all the way. This is ridiculous.
"It wouldn't have mattered if it was a $500 fine, we would have appealed it. We feel very aggrieved about this because if we did something wrong we would cop the fine and move on."
It is understood only one visit was made to one of the sites that were established, while no traffic was registered on the other.
Watt said the websites were just "statutory platforms" and he had not engaged in any illegal practice.
"We've done everything legal and they've questioned the legality of it in the findings," Watt said. "It was only designed to build a moat around our own intellectual property."
Dynamic Syndications races horses with some of the leading trainers in the country including Waller, Peter Moody, Mick Price, Gerald Ryan and Peter and Paul Snowden.
Meanwhile, the print editor of The Sydney Morning Herald, Tom Reilly, has been announced as the new chief executive of Thoroughbred Breeders Australia and Aushorse Marketing.
