Racing NSW boss Peter V'landys has lost his defamation case against the ABC over a report on the slaughter of retired racehorses.
Mr V'landys claimed the ABC's 7.30 program dubbed The Final Race, broadcast in October 2019 had conveyed four defamatory meanings about him.
The report featured graphic footage of retired racehorses being slaughtered at Queensland abattoir Meramis.
The four claimed meanings included that he ""callously permitted the wholesale slaughter of thoroughbred horses" and "dishonestly asserted that no racehorses were sent to knackeries for slaughter in NSW".
But in the Federal Court on Friday, Justice Michael Wigney concluded the program did not convey those meanings although it did not portray Mr Vlandys in a positive light.
"The ordinary reasonable viewer was likely to have been disturbed and even angered by the graphic footage of cruelty to racehorses," he said.
"The juxtaposition of that footage and Mr V'landys' confident assertions about the effectiveness of Racing NSW's rules made his assertions look rather foolish.
"It also tended to convey that the regulators, including Mr V'landys, were ineffective if not incompetent when it came to dealing with the problem of 'wastage' in the racing industry.
"It did not, however, convey that Mr V'landys actually knew that racehorses were being slaughtered and that his denials were callous and dishonest."
Mr V'landys was ordered to pay the broadcaster's legal coss.
