RACING:A LEGAL wrangle by Ireland's trainers and jockeys against the Turf Club could be on the cards after the regulatory body yesterday published new rules about exchange betting which increase their powers to investigate suspicious cases. Part of the new regulations centre on the Turf Club getting access to phone records of individuals being investigated, a move both the Irish Jockeys' Association and Irish Racehorse Trainers' Association are opposed to.
Agreement between the associations and the Turf Club on the phone records question failed to be reached, but the regulatory body is ploughing ahead with a proposal that access to such records will be possible only after an individual case has been presented before an independent adjudicator, who will decide whether such a move is necessary.
“The associations are concerned about us having access to mobile phone records, but our only interest is in relation to our investigation,” Turf Club chief executive Denis Egan said yesterday. “For the individuals concerned, if there’s nothing to hide, then they would have no reason not to provide their records,”
Some €500,000 is generated in turnover with the exchange firm Betfair on even ordinary races in Ireland, dwarfing the amounts bet with on-course bookmakers.
Exchange betting has been at the centre of controversies in British racing in the last decade and it also hit the headlines in Ireland last year when an employee of trainer Charles Byrnes, John O’Gorman, was banned from racecourses for four months after he was found guilty of laying Byrnes-trained horses on the exchanges.
The Turf Club said at the time that their investigation into that case was “hamstrung” by not being able to access phone records.
“Phone records are not the be all and end all,” Egan said. “They won’t convict anyone on their own. But it’s like a jigsaw: you need all the pieces in order to put together a case. What we envisage is that an independent adjudicator, such as a solicitor or a barrister, someone with no connection to the Turf Club, would examine each case on its merits and decide if we should have access to such records.”
The Jockeys’ Association, concerned at the range of powers the Turf Club now has, said the new rules are being put in place despite previous assurances that such steps would be taken only in conjunction with the bodies representing professionals.
“There are very little controls over whether or not the Turf Club can go on a fishing expedition with me or any other licensed person under their jurisdiction,” jockeys’ spokesman Andrew Coonan said yesterday. “I’m not saying they would, but under no circumstances could an Irish citizen be treated in such a manner.”
He added: “Nobody objects to anything that makes racing more transparent. The circumstances in the UK were that such legislation was brought in very carefully and with full consultation. That is not being done here.
“We were told a three-man committee would decide what cases would be investigated. Now, a Turf Club-appointed solicitor or judge will adjudicate.”
The Turf Club’s senior steward, John McStay, said: “One of the biggest threats to the integrity of racing comes from the laying of horses to lose on betting exchanges and it is imperative that we have comprehensive rules in place to deal with any breaches.
“The Turf Club has consulted widely with the various representative bodies, and while they may not be supportive of all the elements of what is included, they all recognise the potential threats to the integrity of racing from the laying of horses on the exchanges. They accept the need for strong rules to deal with the issue and the potential for effective action to be taken for the benefit of racing as a whole.”
As a result of the new rules, it is prohibited for anyone in racing who is involved with a particular horse in any way to use information connected with that horse to lay it to lose on the exchanges.
