Matt Rudolph has ban reduced

Former senior racing executive Matt Rudolph's two-year disqualification for his conduct in the Sam Kavanagh cobalt case has been halved.

In November, a Racing NSW Board sub-committee disqualified Rudolph for two years after finding he acted improperly and tried to influence the trainer to change his evidence to stewards about the source of a substance containing high levels of cobalt.

The Racing Appeals Tribunal has upheld the conviction but altered the penalty to two one-year bans to be served concurrently rather than cumulatively which means Rudolph's disqualification ends in October.

Kavanagh had told stewards that Melbourne vet Tom Brennan, a long-time friend of Rudolph, was the supplier of "Vitamin Complex", a substance found to contain high levels of cobalt.

Rudolph and Kavanagh's father, Melbourne trainer Mark Kavanagh, met with Sam Kavanagh at a Sydney hotel where the younger Kavanagh said he was pressured to change his evidence about Brennan.

Rudolph worked in a senior position at the Australian Turf Club at the time.

The inquiry was sparked by illegal levels of cobalt found in a swab taken from the Sam Kavanagh-trained Midsummer Sun after he won the Gosford Cup in January, 2015.

In his decision made public on Tuesday, Judge David Armati said the tribunal was satisfied that other than for his wrongful conduct on one occasion in a 30 minute meeting, Rudolph had otherwise conducted himself as a member of the community and participant in the industry as senior racing official should.