Apologize if this is old news, but iv only just heard this particular bit of evidence. The racingpost.co.uk ran this story a few days ago - http://www.racingpost.com/news/horse-racing/paul-mulrennan-martin-dwyer-rwitc-bha-alleged-mulrennan-and-dwyer-tape-on-youtube/1679013/top/#newsArchiveTabs=last7DaysNews And this is the audio of the phone call on youtube [video=youtube;62UezBFY14M]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=62UezBFY14M[/video]
"I'll sit out the back on my ****er then" Hard to come back from this, both of them. Here is a link to the race they were discussing. Ice breaker did win. [video=youtube;YXmAabF2ZBU]https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YXmAabF2ZBU[/video]
Personally I think that it wasn't cheating or fixing the race as the horse there on about being so good wins easily I just think mulrennan is only one as he doesn't ride his horse to his merits
It's a fine line, jockeys do discuss the chances of their mounts before a race and some of them obviously know they are riding no-hopers. I remember a few years ago the BBC trailed jockey microphones and in one race, I think at Epsom, the microphones picked up a conversation between Hayley and Frankie which went something like: Hayley "How's yours travelling?" Frankie: "Good" Hayley: "Mines going nowhere. Let me know when you're ready to go and I'll let you out."
Well there's the old Scobie Breasley chestnut where Mrs Breasley said to the Senior Steward "Bet? No Scobie hasn't had a bet since he stopped riding". And when Peter O'Sullivan retired a former champion jockey was quoted as saying "a really great bloke. He'd put your bets on for you so you didn't get into trouble". And the story you've told pN I've read happening a few times in jockey's memoirs.
Thats what we are up against every day of the week. How many horses have you backed not knowing the jockey has backed something else in the race, or the owners are laying, or its just out for a run. I backed Dance With Another yesterday who probably shouldnt have been good enough anyway but was as short as 14s with bookies, it got laid out to 70 on betfair and was pulled about 15 lengths last after a decent start, a filly who has run her best races when handy, and thats from the biggest stable in Ireland in a listed race. Why was it in the race? I have no idea, to make sure they had more than 8 runners maybe so there was 3 places for the two main coolmore fillies is all I can think of. The game is corrupt to the core and its something we need to accept and try to work around because nothing will be changing any time soon. They wonder why viewing figures are going down every year, the channel 4 team arent great but I think the real reason is the sport is widely viewed as bent and a mugs game, and with some of the stuff that has come out over the last few years involving major players in the game its not hard to see why.
Boris is totally right, the sport's full of crookery but I'd be pretty confident that outright cheating is rifest at the lower class stuff. That's one of the reasons I limit my betting to the better stuff and wouldn't even dream of putting my hard earned on the all weather or the dire midweek racing that keeps the bookies open every day of the week. Of course you can never be sure that even the graded racing is straight but the rewards for horses trying to win in them is clearly different level to trying to win a class 5 handicap at Lingfield on a Tuesday evening...
Sorry, you maybe got the wrong impression from my post. I'm sure the odd bet is struck by a jockey when they believe they are riding a horse that will win. I'd be very surprised if it was rife. At the bottom end of the sport I'm sure the odd race is fixed, but not very often. And in that there is a small race at C.... and only 2 horses can wi the race and only one is at the races. I believe racing to be relatively clean compared with other sports.
