Though the five jockeys allegedly involved have not been named, it is claimed they pocketed up to £5,000 a time from punters who cleaned up on-line by backing their mounts not to win.
Reports suggest the scam has been going on for six years.
Paul Struthers, the head of communication at the British Horseracing Authority, which oversees the integrity of racing, issued a statement in light of the revelations.
It read: "We have a team of investigators who each have a number of on-going investigations into a variety of matters at any one time. It would be inappropriate to comment on individual investigations except those that are are already in the public domain or until such time as an investigation has been concluded and charges issued."
It is believed one of these on-going investigations by the BHA’s integrity services is not far off coming to the boil, hence the spread of rumour and innuendo within the sport, like wildfire this week, as to the names of the jockeys.
The highest profile recent case of corruption involved Kieren Fallon, who was arrested on Sept 1 2004. He was eventually charged by the City of London Police in July 2006 for conspiracy to defraud but, on Dec 7 2007, the judge in his trial cleared him, saying he had no case to answer.
The BHA, whose integrity department is headed by former policeman Paul Scotney, works akin to a police intelligence unit. In the Neville Report in 2008, Dame Elizabeth Neville reported that the approach adopted by racing to integrity ‘is a model for the effective investigation of corruption within sport’.
The BHA are all too aware, however, that the sport if inextricably linked to betting and that where there is money there is always going to be someone trying to gain unfair advantage over others.
On occasion this manifests itself through the misuse of privileged information or, worse, corrupters trying to influence the outcome of a race.
The BHA is confident, however, that the vast majority of races are run within the rules of racing and that the sport is as clean as it has ever been.
The emergence of betting exchanges has provided additional opportunities for potential cheats, but the leading exchange firms are in constant communication with the BHA’s integrity services providing up to date information on the betting markets and, where necessary, accurate audit trails back to the cheats.
Following recent criticism over the longevity of some of their investigations, the BHA’s integrity services now aim to conclude all investigations within 12 months.
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