Tony Sergi's lawyer has sent News Corp a concerns notice after they called the Queanbeyan trainer a dead mafia godfather.
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Five of News Corp's Sunday mastheads published a picture of Sergi under a story entitled "Mafia dons 'sitdown' to murder hero they hated", putting the label of "The Godfather" on the photo.
The story was about a different Tony Sergi, who died in 2017 aged 82.
News Corp then issued an apology on Monday.
Sergi's lawyer Steven Lewis, a principal at Mark O'Brien Legal, said they were awaiting a response from News Corp.
A concerns notice informs a publisher that defamatory material has been published and can result in the publisher taking certain action to avoid legal proceedings for defamation
"We've been in correspondence with the publishers. We've brought certain matters to their attention and we're seeking a response in a short period of time," Lewis said.
"We've served a concerns notice in respect of each publication on the publisher and the ball is now in their court.
"Clearly an error has been made and it needs to be rectified."
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The story has since been removed from the online version of The Sunday Telegraph, where it was published on pages 24-25.
News Corp published an apology across the same five publications, which also included The Herald Sun, The Courier Mail, The Advertiser and The Mercury.
"An article ... erroneously included a photo of Tony Sergi, a horse trainer from Queanbeyan," the apology said.
"We would like to make it clear that Mr Sergi has absolutely no connection to organised crime.
"The Sunday Telegraph sincerely apologises to Mr Sergi for the hurt and embarrassment caused by the error."
Meanwhile, Sergi was hoping four-year-old gelding Island Bay Boy would get a run at Kembla Grange on Saturday.
Island Bay Boy's been nominated for the three- and four-year-old benchmark 72 (1200 metres) for the Kembla meet originally scheduled at Randwick, but shifted to the Wollongong track due to Sydney's ongoing lockdown.
The gelding won the MTC Guineas Prelude (1400m) at Wagga Wagga in April, before running fifth in the guineas two-and-a-half weeks later.
"Island Bay Boy is going super. He trialled at Canberra last Friday," Sergi said.
"I've put him in a Sydney race transferred to Kembla Grange this Saturday. I really like the horse, a very, very nice animal in the making.
"We've put him in the deep end a little bit, but we'll so how it all goes.
"I've got a fair few in work, but he's probably the best of them.
"We haven't got a run yet - it all depends on barriers and stuff like that - but we'll see how we go [Wednesday] when barriers come.
"If he doesn't go on Saturday he'll go to Sydney on the Wednesday."