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Buffham and Phipps were both shown to be the right people for the job and that the JC executive totally lack to bottle to act. Buffham was constructivly dismissed by the JC on a trumpted up charge.
The corruption in racing is still widespread and the JC could easily find enough evidence to warn off a few high profile people. I know of two bookmakers a handful of trainers and jockeys pulling illegal strokes every week. One high profile on-course bookie should be the first to go.
Not wishing to libel anyone – but anyone watching the programme has to remember that Mr Buffham broke his confidentiality agreement to give exclusive information to Panorama, and as such their portrayal of him might be more favourable than he deserves.
I agree that the racing industry can be guilty of ‘old-boy-syndrome’ and of complacency, but I’m getting really sicked off with the BBC’s sensationalist approach – and that they seem to be taking the programme as an astonishing relevation of gospel truth, with all their channels banging on about the ‘deep-seated corruption in racing’.
The highpoint of the programme for me was Jimmy Fitzgerald strenuously denying any knowledge of a ‘no lose’ betting account with V Chandler. If there was no law against the practice at the time, why deny it? That just shows me that he was aware that the practice (against any JC laws, or not) was not exactly kosher. And to, later, admit to it just puts him in the same light as Mr Phipps. "Jimmy, you can admit to it! You ain’t doing anything wrong". "Oh, well i’ll admit to it then" is the conversation I imagine after the ‘interview’, after consulting with a lawyer. And Willie Carson’s pandering to Mr Bradley after being copped was, well quite frankly, embarassing.
The Panarama programme was, after all, just one hour long. It cannot expected to be an in-depth report into all aspects of the game. It glossed over the main aspects of the allegations. It did bring some things to the forefront that could quite easily have been swept under the carpet. On that aspect I think the programme did achieve something. I personally would like to see another programme that shows a different view of the arguement. A follow up programme that would cover what has been done about the proposed wrong doing, and show the arguement from a different perspective. It would be nice to form an opinion on the Fallon allegations after hearing Fallon’s side of the story for example.
It was informative though, and I think it served a purpose. I don’t think the programme should be trashed strictly because of it’s one-hour timeslot. There is only so much you can say in 60 minutes.
What Jimmy Fitzgerald admitted to was slightly different to the alleged "no lose account" in that he had an arrangement that if he wanted a £250 bet on a horse of his, Chandler would match that amount, up to a maximum of 3 bets per year; Jimmy’s 3 all lost, and he wasn’t reimbursed!
It left me with the feeling that I’d very much like to go to bed with Gay Kellaway!
I’ll get my coat!!
Garvee:cool:
My views are that this latest BBC attempt to highlight corruption in racing was yet another waste of tax payers money that has been wasted again after the Keyon confronts joke. Instead of dealing with facts (as they would have only had a 5 minute show) they resort to secret filming which was most certainly edited to suit their needs, allegations based on one persons views and hearsay.
Simply let’s look at the facts:
Buffam = Axe to grind with JC for being sacked, paid by Panorama so it was in his intrest to produce juicy stories, took documents that were confidential from his ex-employer and talked about things he was prevented to say as he willingly signed a confidential clause.
Phipps = Puppet to JC, of little integrity for going along with the JC’s request to be-friend Buffam.
Bradley = Should have been banned long ago, he’s even admitted he’s fiddled racing! But still is in racing circles?
Gay Kellaway = Enjoys the limelight but it hardly makes her guilty, a letter from Victor Chandler hardly proves she actually recieved it or has an account!
Jimmy Fitzgerald = Same as Gay above but has admitted to having a similar account, legal at the time though but should have been warned! (no matter how long after)
Victor Chandler = The no-lose accounts offered were against the integrity of racing and he should have been warned off but again at the time they were around they were not against the rules although someone at the JC should have had the balls to warn him to stop it or be banned from racing.
Keiron Fallon = Pathetic allegations, we want proof, not guilt by association!
John Egan = JC’s fault again for not granting HK’s request, where they take cheating seriously!
Willie Carson = Intresting that supergrass identified one of willies horses as being doped, wonder if Willie knew?
The Jockey Club = The SOLE blame lies at the feet of the Jockey Club, they are useless tally-ho’s who bleed the sport by doing bugger-all other than sweeping things under the carpet or taking companies/people to court to gag them. Like many of us on here they must know about the ridicous betting patterns (even moreso now the exchanges promise to point out any odd patterns [yeah right!]) They have the powers to remove the corrupt and devious elements from racing for good but they don’t! Just sit back on JC and continue to enjoy the free party at our expense!
BBC = A shadow of it’s former self, with bias programmes based on bending of the facts and hearsay from people with hidden agenda’s.
Since the programme was shown on Sunday the Daily Record up here in Scotland have had Hugh O ‘Donnell in the paper saying he had races fixed for him by jockeys when he was an owner..i think it was Alan Bailey he had his horses with and Alan Mckay rode most of O’Donnells runners..he had a reputation of a big money punter so it wasn’t a surprise to see him featured in the paper and today they printed this story…<br>A FORMER jockey last night revealed how he made thousands of pounds throwing races for corrupt owners.
The ex-apprentice also told how he and fellow jockeys plotted to make sure the horses they had backed finished first.
His confession comes as the probe into corruption in the sport and links to organised crime intensifies.
"Jamie" (we have changed his name to protect his identity) told the Record he was once paid £10,000 not to ride a horse.
He also says he accepted bungs of £500 to £1000 a time to "box in" a rival horse to make sure it had no chance of winning.
He said: "The reason I am speaking out is because I am sick to death of watching guys blow their wages at the bookies when I know deep down that they aren’t getting a run for their money."
As a teenager, Jamie, from Glasgow, dreamed of being a champion jockey like his hero Willie Carson.
He thought if he worked hard at his apprenticeship and gained enough experience, he would hit the big time.
However, the deeper he became immersed in the racing world the more his eyes were opened to race fixing and bribery.
He said: "On one occasion, I sat in a sauna with five other jockeys who were going to be riding in a six horse race that day.
"We all decided who was going to win. Say there was a 7/2 favourite, a 6/1 and an 8/1 – we would put our money on the 8/1 shot. Instead of 10 per cent of the £1000 prize money, we’d all get a couple of grand.
"We worked in a team and were all given specific targets to block."
Jamie began his apprenticeship aged 19 at Newmarket. He spent a few years in Scandinavia to gain experience but the pressure of keeping his weight down lead to drug abuse.
He said: "Life as an apprentice was tough. You are treated like dirt.
Drugs
"I had to take amphetamines to suppress my appetite in order to keep my weight down.
"If I was told two days before a race I’d be riding and realised I wasn’t going to make the weight, I had to take drugs.
"In the next two days I wouldn’t eat, I’d drink plenty of fluids, take speed pills and run and sit in the sauna."
After success abroad, Jamie returned to Britain and was introduced to the seedy world of race fixing.
He said: "I always thought racing was all about winning, about being the best.
"My hero was Willie Carson and, like him, I wanted to go out there and win, win, win.
"I started getting good horses underneath me. When I was riding them every day I would know which horses were the best and I would spy on the trainer for the owner to make sure he was doing the job right.
"I knew the rumours about race fixing and had heard what was happening. Then I started getting told I’m only taking the horse out for a run, that it was not to win.
"But when I was in a race sitting on a horse I knew could win, and people back home were all rooting for me and putting their money on me, it made me feel rotten."
Jamie says the orders to throw a race never came from the trainers.
He said: "It came from the people who paid the bills – the owners."
Jamie revealed various ways races could be fixed. He said: "The owner would tell me to take it down the front if it wasn’t a front-runner.
"Sometimes they would put an apprentice on a horse and make it look like the horse bolted. Then they would blame the apprentice for not being experienced enough."
One time, Jamie was paid £10,000 NOT to ride a horse because a huge wager had been placed on it.
He said: "I rode it out the first time at 50/1 in a maiden.
"I was told, jump about and let him run and tire out before the race.
"He wasn’t meant to win because they were trying to con the handicappers for the next race.
"But he was such a good horse that three furlongs out, he picked up.
"He was so good that he was still going to win it and I had to make an excuse that I dropped my whip and reins and lost ground. I was scared in case I made a mistake and won.
"The next time out, the horse was supposed to win and I was supposed to ride it but I was taken off when a £60,000 bet was placed in case I made a mistake.
"It was far, far better than the other horses. It shouldn’t have been running in that field but they were conning the handicappers and I was paid £10,000 just for not riding.
"Usually though, I would get between £500 and £1000 for stopping a horse."
Sometimes confusion would reign when more than one owner tried to stitch up the race and jockeys were all involved in their own fixes without consulting each other.
He said: "Sometimes I’d be told to stop a horse but then other jockeys in the same race would be getting paid by other owners to do the same.
"I’ve seen a fight in the weighing room because of that – jockeys in fist-fights because no-one knew what the others were up to and were all blaming one another for ruining the race for them.
"If there was a six-horse race and three jockeys worked together, we would decide the tactics of how we block the others to let the horse we’ve got our money on through.
"I’ve been in situations where I’ve been in a race and I’m blocking horses behind. The horse out in front was the one I had my money on.
Jamie no longer rides and looks back on his career with sadness.
He said: "When my eyes were opened to what was happening I knew that my dream was over, that I wasn’t going to make it big because I was just a pawn.
"It’d be like playing for Rangers or Celtic and being told to go out on Old Firm day and lose the game."
Jamie is still pressed by punters for tips because of his background.
He always gives the same reply: "When people stop me in the bookies and ask for a tip I tell them don’t wash your feet with your socks on.
"Don’t gamble. It’s a mugs’ game."
Yesterday, we exposed race fixer Hugh O’Donnell, who boasted of the ease with which he could guarantee the result of a race.
It followed Sunday’s Panorama, in which Major Rodger Buffham, ex-director of security at the Jockey Club, revealed the scale of the problem, sparking a massive inquiry.
I think most folk will have expected stories like this to follow the programme ..the story of the amatuer jockey who was banned a couple of years ago it was well publicised up here and he was the owner of several brothels and saunas and a top northern jockey who was associated with him was up on rape charges around 3 years ago i think it was along with the guy who got banned ..the jockey was cleared but he was dogged for a while by the revelations of being associated with the guy concerned .
I think the most amusing thing about the programme was that Jimmy Fitzgerald and Gay Kellaway should be allowed to have no lose accounts. Was Victor Chandler expecting these two to have a welter of winners or something ? Kellaway has only had 76 winners in the past five years…
I do think though that the time has come for Graham Bradley to be warned off for good from Horse Racing. The guy is a plain crook. I mean he admits under oath at Wright’s trial that he accepted money for ‘advise’ but then denies it during Panorama and then issues a statement denying it again in the press yesterday. Did he lie in court then ?
His autobiography should also be pulped as it’s been exposed as nothing but a collection of barely believable fables and excuses (I regret buying it now).
The thing that really gets my back up though is people coming on this board, from the ‘old school’ trotting out the ‘it’s nothing new…we’ve always known racing is a bit bent’ rubbish as if that’s an excuse for some people’s behaviour. However unfocussed Panorama and Kenyon Confronts have been it once again shows racing in a very poor light. <br>There’s no point in the racing industry taking out adverts in the national press portraying racing as a vibrant ‘cool’ sport for young people if it is going to constantly leave itself vulnerable to these sort of exposees. We need a strong, credible governing body with real ‘tangible’ power and the ability to rid the sport of the undesireables, a collection of which were exposed on Sunday. The Jockey Club is clearly impotent and unable to perform this function.
Phunter,
thanks for that, it’s certainly opening the issue up; in saying that it’s clear our friend "Jamie" is talking absolute nonsense, and his claim that he’s sick of seeing punters mugged reeks of hypocrisy.
Rory ,I have to agree while it makes it interesting to see other stories on the matter this story printed today was in my opinion a non starter ..i don’t believe for a minute that Wullie, Jock or Tam or whatever he wants to call himself felt anything for the punters but this was probably put in to make it sound good for him..the point i think that maybe should be made is to jockeys that they need to watch who they are associated with in the future ..if they look at this themselves it can only do them good..if the O’Donnell story is true i would hope that the JC contact him to verify the claims as it would do the sport a whole lot of good to be seen to be trying to repair the damage which has been done.
Another story from the Record today it concerns the amatuer who was warned off …………THE traditional world of the blue-blooded racing officials at the Jockey Club in London is far removed from its seamy namesake on Spain’s Costa del Crime.
But former Scots jockey Adrian McPherson is a man well- acquainted with both.
Five years ago, he became the first rider to lose his licence for bringing shame on the sport, after he was sentenced to jail for living off the earnings of prostitution. But, on appeal, he was given community service instead.
His sordid tale exposed the dark underbelly of racing, after his Edinburgh sauna was at the centre of rape claims involving a hooker and four top jockeys.
After the case was abandoned because of a lack of evidence, the Jockey Club probed McPherson, concerned that jockeys had been getting sexual favours in return for inside information.
They refused to renew McPherson’s licence in 1997 because he was "not a fit and proper person".
But sources say they were never able to nail race-fixing allegations.
The Record’s campaign has exposed corruption that has cost thousands of ordinary punters money. It has also seen one jockey admit to throwing races for cash – and it has now caught up with McPherson, 44.
He’s leading the high life, flitting between his home on the Costa del Sol and his house in Scotland.
Teetotal and non-smoking, he is one of the most feared and respected figures in the murky world of Costa crime.
He can be found in a restaurant at the marina in Fuengirola called The Jockey Club which, on paper, is owned by his girlfriend, Lindsay.
He has his own table in one corner overlooking the harbour. A seat there is by invitation only.
Short, wiry and always clear- headed, he receives people at his table to discuss business and horses. He is also revered guest at the Costa del Sol racecourse.
He was a good friend of Brian Wright – known as "The Milkman" because he always delivers – who also frequented the track.
Wright is now holed up in northern Cyprus instead of facing life in prison on cocaine charges.
The gangster was featured on the weekend’s Panorama programme as the linchpin in the entire race-fixing scam.
Outwardly, McPherson comes across as a quiet man. He lives in an end- of-terrace town house in Torrenueva, in the hills behind Fuengirola, with his long- term lover.
Their two rottweilers are let loose on anyone who dares to make inquiries at the whitewashed villa.
But it is The Jockey Club that is the hub of McPherson’s empire. It is where he summons those he wants to talk to or needs to deal with.
He has been under investigation by Spanish police for alleged smuggling.
McPherson’s name has also surfaced in connection with the brutal killing of Irish money launderer Michael McGuinness, who was found dead in the boot of his car at Malaga airport two years ago.
But yesterday, McPherson’s girlfriend denied he had anything to do with race-fixing.
Speaking from their villa, Lindsay claimed: "He doesn’t go to races and he doesn’t even gamble.
"I think you’ve got it all wrong. He’s not even here at the moment to defend himself. I saw the Panorama programme and he wasn’t even mentioned, so I don’t know where you get your information from."
But a police spokesman in Fuengirola told the Daily Record: "We are aware of McPherson and are interested in his activities."
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