Greyhound trainer Jon Roberts get life ban for involvement in live baiting scandal
LEADING greyhound trainer and Melbourne Cup winner Jon Roberts has been banned from the sport for life for using a live rabbit as bait.
South East
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LEADING Devon Meadows greyhound trainer and Melbourne Cup winner Jon Roberts has been banned from the sport for life for using a live rabbit as bait while training at the notorious Tooradin Trial Track last November.
The Greyhound Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board handed down the penalty this morning.
Board chairman John Wardle said Roberts had shown no remorse for his actions.
He had pleaded not guilty.
A penalty of life disqualification was necessary to denounce Roberts’ conduct and to deter others, Mr Wardle said.
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“Although up until this incident Mr Roberts has had a clean history in the industry and has been a respected and successful trainer, he did himself no favours in his appearance before the board,” Mr Wardle said.
“He showed no remorse and indeed offered no submissions at all on his own behalf. His attitude before the board was extremely disappointing,” he said.
Roberts won the 2009 Melbourne Cup with Lord Ducal, gaining his first Group 1 success after many years in the sport.
Two years later he trained the same dog to take out the TAB Sportsbet $200,000 Quaddie Pool FFA at Sandown Park.
Roberts’ life ban follows that of another greyhound racing identity, Anthony Mills, of Tooradin and a 10-year disqualification, with five suspended, for Eric Sykes for their roles at the same Tooradin track.
The live baiting scandal broke when the ABC’s Four Corners broadcast shocking footage from the Tooradin track, obtained by Animals Australia activists.
Roberts, Mills and Sykes were three of nine trainers charged over the scandal. Another seven remain under investigation.