A Queensland greyhound trainer banned for life over the live baiting scandal is free to race again after an 18-month battle to clear his name.
Tracey Kunde was one of several trainers to contest harsh bans from Racing Queensland in the state's civil tribunal but is believed to be the first to have his life ban thrown out entirely.
![Greyhound trainer Tracey Kunde is free to race again.](/web/20161120075246im_/http://www.brisbanetimes.com.au/content/dam/images/g/m/z/f/o/0/image.related.articleLeadwide.620x349.gsrz1d.png/1479380302142.jpg)
The decision rejected a central tenet of the governing body's response to the scandal, namely that a trainer could be breaking the rules simply by failing to report live baiting.
In February Mr Kunde told Fairfax Media he believed he'd been made a "scapegoat" by the sport's governing body in the wake of shocking revelations of widespread live baiting.
Fellow trainers Greg Paull and Ron Ball both failed in bids to the Queensland Civil and Administrative Tribunal to have the secret footage obtained by animal rights activists that uncovered the practice considered illegal and disregarded.
Mr Kunde's QCAT claim also touched on the illegality of the footage but he hung his hopes on arguments that QR misinterpreted the footage and wrongly claimed he admitted guilt.
He was one of more than 20 trainers banned for life early last year after Four Corners aired the footage of live piglets, possums and rabbits squealing on the lure arm as dogs chased them around disgraced trainer Tom Noble's unregistered track.
Noble has been warned off racetracks for life and convicted of 15 criminal counts of animal cruelty.
Licensed trainer Wayne McDonald and owner Keith McDonald were banned for two years last Wednesday for attending the illicit track earlier this year, well after Noble's crimes had been uncovered.
Mr Kunde was originally banned for life before appealing that decision to the Queensland Racing Disciplinary Board in May 2015, which cut his and more than 10 other trainers' bans to 10 years.
In a decision handed down on Tuesday, QCAT threw out Mr Kunde's shortened ban and his original life warning off, finding there wasn't enough evidence to prove he knew there was live baiting going on when he was at the Noble track on August 22, 2014.
More significantly, the tribunal, which labelled the NSW government's short-lived plans to ban the sport "draconian", found under rules existing at the time, Mr Kunde had no obligation to report live baiting even if it was proved that he witnessed it.
A rule punishing failure to report live baiting wasn't introduced until April last year, after the live baiting scandal broke.
A previous Supreme Court decision had accepted greyhound trainer Deborah Arnold's admission that the omission breached existing rules but appeared not to have been fully argued, QCAT member Robert King-Scott said.
"The tribunal is of the opinion that, at the time of the alleged offence, the failure to report live baiting could not constitute conduct actionable under GAR (Greyhounds Australasia Rules) rule 86(q)," he found.
"It follows that the decision of the Disciplinary Board should be set aside."
A jubilant Mr Kunde told Fairfax Media that Racing Queensland "got it wrong" and he never should have been punished in the first place.
A decision is yet to be made on the QCAT appeal of Mr Kunde's friend, Ray Gatti, who also claimed to have been made a "scapegoat".