Victorian greyhound trainer avoids ban despite dog being found with cocaine in system

A veteran greyhound trainer whose dog was found to have cocaine in its system at a race has avoided a temporary ban despite the industry regulator calling for one.The Victorian Civil and Administrative Tribunal (Vcat) on Thursday decided not to impose tougher penalties on Geoffrey Dalton, who was fined $300 after the dog tested positive for cocaine before a 2024 race.The Vcat decision came as the Coalition for the Protection of Greyhounds released industry data showing 30 greyhounds have died in or after Victorian races this year, more than anywhere else in Australia, with seven deaths this month alone.The Victorian Racing Tribunal (VRT) fined Dalton in February 2025 and slapped him with a nine-month disqualification which it wholly suspended, meaning he was not actually prohibited from participating in the industry.At the time, Dalton told VRT he had “no knowledge” of how the dog, Soda Apache, was exposed to cocaine before the race at the Meadows in Melbourne’s north on 6 March 2024.He pleaded guilty to failing to present a greyhound free of any prohibited substance, and failing to keep treatment records.The state regulator, greyhound racing Victoria (GRV), went to Vcat to appeal VRT’s decision, arguing the suspended disqualification was inadequate and Dalton should have been temporarily banned from the industry.Vcat rejected GRV’s appeal, in part because Dalton had let his trainer registration lapse when it expired on 30 June 2025 and it would be a “harsh” to disqualify him when he had effectively “excluded himself” from greyhound racing.In its decision published on Thursday, Vcat member Daniel Slater said Dalton had suffered reputational damage as he could “no longer state that his almost 40 years in the greyhound racing industry is unblemished”.“This may impact his ability to attract greyhound owners to entrust him to train their dogs in the future,” the decision said.Shane O’Connell, GRV’s integrity and welfare manager, said the regulator respects the decision but was “hoping for a different outcome”.“The presence of prohibited substances – particularly permanently banned substances – is taken extremely seriously, given the importance of maintaining integrity and public confidence in greyhound racing,” O’Connell said.“GRV continues to believe that penalties in these cases should send a strong and clear message across the industry about the responsibility participants have to present dogs free of prohibited substances.“GRV will not be pursuing any further avenues of appeal and remains committed to upholding the highest standards of integrity and animal welfare.”The Vcat decision set out the earlier circumstances of the case, including what Dalton had submitted to VRT before it decided to give him a suspended disqualification.In February 2025, Dalton told VRT he had been unavailable to take Soda Apache to the race, so one of the dog’s part-owners, a registered handler, had transported it there in a van which had “possibly been contaminated with cocaine”.Dalton relied on evidence from a witness, not publicly named, who told VRT they had identified possible cocaine contamination in the van but the registered handler who took the race didn’t know this.VRT accepted the evidence that Dalton could not have known that Soda Apache would be transported in the van rather than the handler’s personal car or that the van may have been contaminated with cocaine.“We are satisfied that this evidence puts this case in the category of cases where the owner has taken significant precautions to ensure that the greyhound is not exposed to prohibited substances,” VRT said at the time.Vcat on Thursday determined the VRT’s original penalty served as “general deterrence” for others in the industry because “substantial adverse consequences arose” for Dalton, even though he was not actively disqualified.“The tribunal does not accept the GRV’s submission that an active disqualification is the only reasonable penalty to impose for a presentation charge relating to a permanently banned prohibited substance,” the decision said.“Such an approach would fail to deal with each case on its merits.”The Vcat decision said Dalton was an owner trainer from 1988, and a public greyhound trainer from 2012 until 2025, and that he had no relevant prior offences.VRT has been contacted for comment.