7 of the 8 greyhounds in the Million Dollar Chase Final have trainers with shocking convictions.
The 2026 MDC finalists
- Canya Mayhem — Trained by Jessica Hopkins
- Hey Arnold — Trained by Melinda (Minnie) Finn
- Pound Keeping — Trained by Melinda (Minnie) Finn
- Shaq Keeping — Trained by Melinda (Minnie) Finn
- Jungle Johnny — Trained by Mark Gatt
- Magical Ang — Trained by Peter Lagogiane
- Fearless Bandit — Trained by Jodie Lord
- Winsome Jet — Trained by Melinda (Minnie) Finn
Reserve: Spencer Banner
Reserve: StormHustler
Melinda (Minnie) Finn
“NSW greyhound trainer Melinda Finn was busted four times for presenting dogs that were doped with a dangerous drug…copping a 12-year disqualification.” [later downgraded]
“In December last year, Mrs Finn earned the unenviable distinction of becoming the first person in the industry to be found guilty of possessing dogs that had been injected with recombinant human erythropoietin (EPO).”
Sun Herald, March 26, 2017: Trainer of doped greyhounds has penalty slashed
Mark Gatt
LANGUAGE WARNING
“Mr. Gatt, as a registered Public Trainer, engaged in conduct of lay betting against a greyhound that he trained.
Plea: Guilty”
[In racing, “lay betting” means betting on a participant (in this case, a greyhound) to lose rather than win.]
GWIC DISCIPLINARY ACTION DECISION 28 August, 2024
“In 2022 Mark Gatt struck his greyhound “Hudson Road” on the side of his head when presenting the greyhound for weighing. The greyhound raised its head and made contact with the trainer’s head.”
During the course of the inquiry, Mr Gatt used the following language towards or in relation to the Stewards:
“…he’s just a bit of a poof”;
“It’s fucking – if a dog hits you in the fucking head, you fucking hit the cunt.”;
“I’ve just fucking told you what happened—“;
“—you’re fucking pissing me off.”;
“Just shut up and listen to me.”;
“The dog hit me in the fucking head and I reacted to it.”;
“I fucking…clipped him”;
“If someone hits you in the head, you just fucking – well I do, I know that.”;
“You are treating me like a fucking idiot.”;
“The dog’s a fucking faggot…”
“You’ve got an explanation about the dog hitting me in the head and me reacting
and hitting the cunt.”;
“You’re just trying to piss me off.”; and
“Well, I couldn’t give a fuck. I couldn’t give a fuck.”
GWIC DISCIPLINARY ACTION DECISION, 2 August 2022
Peter Lagogiane
“It was a dog trained by Peter Lagogiane, who was in May charged with facilitating the export of greyhound Wandering Mija without a greyhound passport to Dubai. The issue is Dubai’s low animal welfare standards. But, no worries, in competing in the world’s richest greyhound race on our road to “high standards of integrity”! In 2015, the same trainer was disqualified from greyhound racing for 16 weeks after he pleaded guilty to a charge after racing greyhound Kleinzan with the prohibited substance randitine in its system. Point 13 of the decision states that Mr Lagogiane had previously been before GRNSW stewards on three occasions after racing dogs with prohibited substances in their system, in 2004, 2006 and 2008.
“Lagogiane was also fined $500 in 2010 after his greyhound Pigeon Flyer tested positive to the prohibited substance procaine. In 2014, his kennels were shut down after three of his dogs died. Tests revealed one of the dogs died from salmonella.
“Yes, the dog that won the Million Dollar Chase, Mystic Riot, is registered in his wife Jodie’s name. Yet he was the one interviewed afterwards as the victor after the race by both Sky Racing and GRNSW – strangely, the article from GRNSW’s website, saying that Lagogiane and his wife Jodi co-trained Mystic Riot, has since disappeared.”
Sydney Morning Herald, November 10, 2018: And you thought America was going to the dogs, whereas in the great state of NSW . . .
Jodie Lord
“Ms Jodie Lord presented the greyhound ‘Destroying’ for the purpose of competing in race 2 at the Wentworth Park meeting on 26 April 2025 in circumstances where the Greyhound was not free of any prohibited substance. Carprofren”
GWIC DISCIPLINARY ACTION DECISION, 29 July 2025
“Greyhound Racing NSW records show his wife Jodie Lord, a veteran trainer, was disqualified three times since 2005 over the discovery of prohibited substances in her greyhounds.
Ms Lord and 178 other trainers have also been charged recently by Greyhound Racing NSW with the unauthorised export of dogs to Macau, where healthy Australian dogs languish in shocking conditions and are brutally slaughtered.
Jodie Lord is currently serving an 18-week disqualification after a drug test found the banned anti-anxiety medication oxydiazepam in one of her dogs in 2015.
She was disqualified from greyhound racing for 18 months in 2005 after cocaine was discovered in one of her dogs.
Within six months of returning to the industry in 2009, she was disqualified again for four months over the discovery of a prohibited steroid, dexamethasone, in a greyhound that was kept on her husband’s property.
Two recent investigations by Greyhound Racing NSW also found Ms Lord “displayed poor husbandry practices”.
ABC, 8 Jul 2016: Veteran greyhound trainer Jodie Lord disqualified over banned drugs in dogs