As Cheltenham approaches, betting scandals hang over horseracing, with some jockeys accused of deliberately losing races, writes Frank McNally
For some of the politicians who make Cheltenham an annual holiday, next week's festival promises to be a refreshing break. Not only will they get away from tribunals for a few days, but they can also sit back and enjoy the entertainment for once, as horseracing itself appears in the dock.
A series of apparent betting scandals has pitched the sport into one of its periodic crises - the worst yet, according to former bookmaker and louder-than-life Channel 4 commentator John McCririck. McCririck knows only one way to go on any issue, and that's over the top. But his view of the seriousness of the latest crisis is not without supporters. Another pundit and a former vice-president of the Jockeys' Association, Brough Scott, believes the sport needs nothing less than a "wholesale change of culture".
As the championships of jump racing, it should be said, Cheltenham has a relatively unblemished reputation. Fixes are more likely at the opposite end of the game's glamour spectrum, where profits from bookmakers are a better prospect than prize-money. The festival organisers can also console themselves that the biggest of the alleged scandals now festering belongs to flat racing, its distant and less charismatic cousin.
Debate still rages about the exact nature of Kieren Fallon's crime when he lost an apparently unassailable lead on Ballinger Ridge at Lingfield last week. For most, it was nothing more than incompetence, as he eased the horse too early. One Racing Post letter-writer claimed it was only the Clareman's "brilliance" that gave the 17-time loser a winning chance to begin with (the horse has since ended his losing streak, under a different jockey).
Closer to Cheltenham's heart is the case of jump jockey Sean Fox, who the stewards found to have parted company from his horse at Fontwell with none of the usual reluctance. Suspicions increased when an on-course bookmaker reported a phone call from a contact just after the race started. "Is Fox still on Ice Saint?" asked the caller, and when told he was, added: "Well he won't be in a minute."
Fox insists he just lost his balance. But the common thread in his and Fallon's case, and a third one involving the running of a lame horse, is the role of betting exchanges.
Only three years old and already hugely successful, the exchange phenomenon was pioneered by, among others, Dermot Desmond, whose Betdaq is a field leader. Essentially, the idea was to apply the principles of the stock exchange to sport: bringing together people who wanted to "buy" or "sell" the chances of something winning or losing. For the first time, punters could act as bookmakers, "laying" a horse - or in other words, betting on it not to win - to those with a different opinion. The exchange just takes a commission, for use of its trading platform. It was the nature and extent of such negative betting on the three horses in question, as reported by the exchanges themselves, that prompted Jockey Club investigations.
But the case both highlights the problems caused by betting exchanges and their potential for cleaning up the sport. As Alan Byrne, the Irish former editor of the Racing Post, points out, the exchanges have created an "audit trail" for tracking suspicious activity.
The vast majority of those using the service are operating on "pure opinion", Byrne says. But the exchanges have both a motive and an obligation to expose the "0.01 per cent of cases involving insider-trading". In the old days, someone who knew a horse would not win might strike a deal with a bookmaker, who would "lay" an agreed amount of the knowing punter's money, to tempt an unknowing public. The bookies were not likely to report such activity.
Race betting is a knowledge economy. One of the "crimes" for which Kieren Fallon was indicted by the News of the World was passing tips to undercover reporters. But jockeys and trainers continually share information with the public, in everything from newspaper columns to the Cheltenham preview nights held around Ireland and Britain. The rules are easily blurred and the controls - such as the British ban on mobile phones in jockey rooms - are sometimes crude.
Brough Scott admits it's hard for young jockeys riding outsiders to refuse offers of money for making sure the horses don't win. It was hard for him, "a 24-year-old graduate from a privileged background", he told the Guardian this week. But he adds: "Imagine being 17, out of Ireland, with no education and living on a pittance." Patronising as it may be, the general sentiment is valid.
Punters can be assured that the jockeys and trainers going to Cheltenham this week will probably all be trying to win. But another of Fallon's alleged misdemeanours is worth keeping in mind. He incurred the News of the World's wrath by suggesting that punters were "stupid, stupid". And while this may not have been a tactful thing to say, it's a view generally supported by the statistics.
They're off: losing tricks of the trade
Bucket of water The oldest trick in the book: giving the horse too much water to drink before the start of a race. The animal becomes bloated and cannot perform to its full potential.
Slow start Missing the break in a sprint practically rules out a horse's chance. This was the case in the 1985 Champion Hurdle when the odds-on favourite Browne's Gazette, ridden by confessed doper Dermot Browne, was facing to the side rather than to the front when the tapes were raised at the start. It finished sixth.
Stopping or getting blocked A jockey gets his horse boxed in behind a wall of horses as the race progresses, meaning that he can't get a clear run and compete for first position.
Wrong going, wrong distance By running a horse consistently over a distance that does not suit the horse, or on ground that is slower than the horse prefers, a trainer can ensure it fails. The official handicapper reacts by giving the horse a lower rating, which means that it runs in races with less able horses. The trainer then runs the horse on the correct ground and at the correct distance and the horse is likely to win, often at very attractive odds.
Purgatives In 1961 the Derby favourite, Pinturischio, was "got at" with a dose of croton oil, normally used on constipated elephants. The horse was given a double dose which reportedly worked like a charm.
Exercise Certain horses need plenty of exercise on the gallops and lack of it would affect their performance, leading to losses and a descent down the handicaps. The same applies for overworking a horse.
Ringer This means racing a horse that looks similar to another, but is in fact much better. When Flockton Grey was backed to win £200,000 at Leicester in 1982, the horse that actually won the race was in fact called Good Hand. Trainer John Bowles was banned for 20 years for a similar scam in 1978 when a horse with little form called In The Money won five races. The beast that actually did the running was Cobbler's March.
Stun gun A defendant in a drugs case in 1989 claimed that he had affected the running of a horse called Ile de Chypre at Royal Ascot the previous year through ultrasound waves emitted by an adapted pair of binoculars. The efficacy of such a device was unproved and the defendant's story was not accepted by the court. During the course of the King George V Handicap, Ile de Chypre had suddenly veered badly in the middle of the race.
Doping There have been many cases of doping down the years, the most recent being that of Avanti Express and Lively Knight. Both were tested positive for the tranquilliser Acetylpromazine (ACP). Avanti Express was doped when pulled up at Exeter in March 1997 and Lively Knight, a 7-1 on shot, finished second at Plumpton in the same month.
Jumping off There must be easier ways to lose a race, but jockey Sean Fox apparently did it to perfection at Fontwell on Monday when he seemed to step off Ice Saint in a beginners' chase, earning a 21-day riding ban for "failing to take all reasonable measures to obtain the best possible placing". Fox denies cheating.
- (Guardian service)