Peter Moody has beaten a cobalt charge that could have ended his training career.
Moody has been cleared of the most serious charge of intentionally administering cobalt to affect a racehorse's performance, which would have carried a minimum three-year ban.
He was instead found guilty of a lesser administration offence that carries no minimum penalty and will likely result in a fine and/or much shorter ban.
But a judge has criticised the high-profile trainer for his far from satisfactory stable operations and declared "the buck stops with him" after Lidari returned a cobalt level double the allowed threshold.
Victoria's Racing Appeals and Disciplinary Board found something occurred within Moody's stables for the prohibited substance to end up in Lidari but it was not satisfied the cobalt was administered to affect the horse's 2014 Turnbull Stakes performance.
"Carelessness or even negligence is not purposeful administration," chairman Judge John Bowman said.
A relieved Moody said he felt vindicated.
"We've never cheated. We've never had to cheat," he told reporters.
"We didn't administer cobalt knowingly or purposely for changing the result of a race. We never have, never will."
Moody had said he was close to walking away from the sport during a race day treatment probe in September amid the cobalt charges, but on Wednesday said he did not have to worry about that now.
Moody, who trained retired unbeaten champion Black Caviar, said the case had impacted his business and the legal fees were financially draining.
"It's no secret the quality of the horses I now train is significantly less than the horses I trained 18 months ago.
"I haven't lost any business because of this matter but I haven't gained any, which is something that all stables need - you need new business generating to go forward."
Moody's defence blamed Lidari's elevated cobalt reading after he ran second in the Turnbull Stakes on a stablehand mistakenly giving the horse large doses of oral hoof treatment Availa for months, but Racing Victoria stewards argued it was a nonsense story and a lie.
Judge Bowman said the stablehand and Moody's main feed manager were poor witnesses but all supplements fed to horses had to be first approved and authorised by the trainer and the ultimate responsibility rested with Moody.
"Lidari was under the care and control of Mr Moody and the buck stops with him," he said.
"At the very least, Mr Moody failed to prevent the prohibited substance finding its way into Lidari as a result of something occurring within his stables."
The board said there was significant carelessness in the operation of Moody's stables and they were far from satisfactory.
"Indeed, at times it seemed that the many shortcomings at Mr Moody's stables were being presented as a defence to the charges against him," Judge Bowman said.
The board did not conclude Moody was being untruthful when he had no explanation for the cobalt reading other than what might have been due to the Availa supplementation.
Moody said the stable's practices had rightly been called into question.
"Maybe I've been too successful for too long for my own good and hadn't looked at rectifying practices within my stable that ultimately probably wouldn't have allowed this to happen.
"Ultimately I think a mistake has led to this happening."
Penalty submissions will be made on Thursday afternoon.
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