Canberra's greyhound racing club will fight a move to ban the industry by suing the ACT government for money it says is owed after ACTTAB funding ended.
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Lawyers for the club have commenced legal action it hopes will stop the shutdown, which it says will put 50 people out of work and ignores its animal welfare record.
Club legal counsel Jim Colquhoun also directed a warning to the ACT's thoroughbred and harness racing industries after they declined to join its legal action, saying they could become targets for the government if they didn't unite.
The club will claim that by funnelling money for the greyhound industry into an assistance fund for people forced to leave, the government would deny it 'just terms' for funding it used to receive from ACTTAB before the agency's 2014 sale to Tabcorp.
Removing it as a controlling body for the industry and acquiring its track would deny it further property rights, its lawyers say.
The club will also argue laws require the government to conduct an inquiry before banning racing, and has also vowed to fight it on constitutional grounds it says prevent legislation stopping free trade across the ACT-NSW border.
But attorney-general Gordon Ramsay said the government was confident it could legislate to end the industry.
"Anyone is free to make claims about the law. The strength or merits of a claim are not determined by press conferences," he said.
"The government will be moving forward on the basis of sound advice and facts, not media claims."
Mr Colquhoun admonished Canberra's thoroughbred and harness racing clubs for refusing to join greyhound trainers and breeders in court, and suggested the government could try acquiring the city's race course.
"If we as a racing club get picked off, what's going to happen next?" he said.
Canberra Greyhound Racing Club's Kel Watt said the government had made 14 policy changes on the industry's future in 12 months.
He rubbished the Durkin report recommending the ACT shut down greyhound racing, saying it ignored the club's submissions and contained misinformation.
Consultant Mary Durkin found relying on NSW's new Greyhound Welfare and Integrity Commission to oversee racing in Canberra could be costly and folding that oversight role into local government would increase the regulatory burden on the ACT taxpayer.
Mr Watt denied this meant an end to the ACT industry, saying it could use regulatory oversight from Victoria and that the club had restructured its budget so that revenue had increased.
Mr Ramsay said the greyhound racing club's submissions were quoted throughout the Durkin report and it employed only two people full-time and 24 casual staff.
He has promised to outlaw the sport by the end of June 2018, after the independent report by Ms Durkin found it was 'impossible' to separate the ACT industry from the track record of Greyhound Racing NSW.
However it found no evidence of live-baiting in the ACT and said only a fraction of dogs had been injured or euthanised at the Canberra Greyhound Racing Club's Narrabundah track.
Greyhound racing was historically funded through payments from ACTTAB, but the government agreed to step in after concerns about the betting agency's falling competitiveness and its ability to support the industry.
It signed a memorandum of understanding with Canberra's thoroughbred, harness and greyhound racing clubs in December 2013 to provide $8 million to the racing industry, including $1 million for greyhound racing.
Harness Racing ACT declined to comment and Canberra Racing Club did not respond before deadline.
With Katie Burgess
