TWO EXERCISE riders at champion trainer Aidan O’Brien’s Ballydoyle stables in Co Tipperary were fined €2,000 each by the Turf Club yesterday for laying O’Brien-trained horses to lose on the internet betting exchange Betfair. However, they escaped being disqualified from racing.
Gosuke Motoki and Kaname Tsuge, from Japan, continue to work at the world-famous racing yard. They were also ordered to pay €350 each in costs towards the breach of Rule 273 case which was held at Turf Club HQ on the Curragh yesterday.
Both admitted to the offence but argued they weren’t aware of the rules and don’t speak English very well, mitigating factors that the Turf Club took into account when not “warning off” the two men. The regulatory body also concluded Motoki and Tsuge’s accounts indicated a pattern that suggested gambling rather than the use of inside information.
In a written submission on his employee’s behalf, O’Brien said he “trusted them utterly and held them in the highest regard”. He also said he found them to be “absolutely honest and conscientious in all their dealings with him and their fellow employees”.
The Turf Club’s head of security, Chris Gordon, outlined a series of bets by the men over at least a three-year period which saw Motoki losing an overall €46 on 34 bets, while Tsuge won €600 on 61 bets between March 2007 and October 2010. They said they stopped laying horses on the exchanges when told of a prohibition on the practise in an insert in their December 2010 payslips.
The Turf Club took those factors into account but stressed stable staff are supposed to know the rules regarding exchange betting. “It is unacceptable for stable staff to lay horses from the stable they work in to lose,” the Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said. “In this case there is no indication of inside information being used, as the betting records of the individuals indicates. But they were still in breach of the rules.”
The Turf Club were initially tipped off by the British Horseracing Authority who had received communications from Betfair. Tsuge gave his address as “Ballydoyle, Rosegreen, Co Tipperary” on his account profile and no attempt was made to hide either man’s address.
The riders have been associated with some of the most famous horses trained by O’Brien in the last decade. Motoki was the regular work rider of the legendary Yeats who completed four wins in a row in the Ascot Gold Cup. Tsuge rode the likes of Rip Van Winkle and the 2002 Derby winner High Chaparral.
The only other breach of Rule 273 dealt with by the Turf Club came in January of last year when John O’Gorman, an employee of Co Limerick trainer Charles Byrnes, was “warned off” for four months by the Turf Club after he laid horses in the Byrnes yard to lose on the exchanges.
There was criticism from the Turf Club yesterday for Betfair who didn’t communicate their concerns about Motoki and Tsuge’s accounts to Irish racing’s regulatory body. They said information should have been provided sooner and closer cooperation between Betfair and the Turf Club is imperative.
Racing and Goffs Yearling
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