Horse Racing and Race Fixing

If you are a serious student of the game and following horse racing, you may have witnessed Dud horses often sprout wings and dash the hopes of majority of punters. You may have also seen owners and trainers enter multiple horses in a race and their long shots are favoured to win by sacrificing their hot favourites.

If you analyze the past results of any center in India, you may find over 60% of horses were won at nourishing odds above 6/1. Betting exchanges in most part of the world are accepting bets on all sports and offering odds on winning and losing, hence match fixing is thriving. Fixing in horse racing is going on unabated for several decades, the situation has now worsened and the punters have lost complete faith in horse racing. Race goers lost hope because no one at the hot seats is bothered to call and question the erring professionals or punish them for in and out racing of their wards.

In all gambling business, the huge money involved in betting is the main bone of contention. It is certainly not true that all races are fixed.  Several racing experts say even if the field is 15 or 20, only in each race there are only three real contenders. Rest are given outing for a jog. And the betting is really around those three horses. If the owners of these three horses are in same profession, gambling, committee, it is easy to influence the other two and fix the race anyways.  It is like WWE wrestling matches, all Wrestlers are in it playing (or acting) their part to win or to lose a bout. Everything is pre-decided. That is the reason I would say all the punters are conned at majority of times. To vindicate the above statement, I am ready to furnish a list of horses, their trainers and owners names that conned the racing public in the last five years in all major race clubs in India. Under the circumstances it is not easy to make money from horse racing, it is impossible.

Mr.Kelso Sturgeon – an ex-trainer, jockey agent, breeder, handicapper, and an author having more than three decades of experience on the track has blown the whistle of Match Fixing in his book “THEY FIX HORSE RACES… DON’T THEY?”   H said categorically the horse racing once belonged to the public changed to the sole property of the insiders.  Insiders have only one goal: win a bet at the public's expense. He admitted in the book, he kept silent and allowed it to happen during his period as a trainer. One day he woke up and blown the whistle – INSIDERS FIX THE RACES, the fix is in everywhere. Professional trainers and jockeys are beating your brains in every single day at every single race track all over the world.

His one sentence in the book shocked me – “Professional trainers and jockeys are beating your brains in every single day at every single race track in his country”.  Not only has it happened in his country, it is happening in India regularly for years.  Even if you are smart and experienced enough in horse racing, it is difficult to guess whose horses are on job today, whether it is this trainer or that trainer, this jockey or that jockey, this owner or that owner? Majority of times these people are often get away with the public money. It is always a guessing game for the punters.  Over 65% of the horses are winning are out of merit. Such results can only purchase at nourishing odds when the connections of best horses (favourites) are also party to this loot.  Is it possible you may think?  Of course this is going on for some time in India.

(1)        There are some an anti-bleeding medication that works like performance enhancer.  But trainers get away with it because drug testing labs can only determine if a horse has received it, not how much?.

(2)        There are drugs to sedate the HOT FAVOURITES to lose.  I caution the race goers, there is no guarantee Ruffina - the best horse at the moment in Western India - wins it next race. The propaganda has started. Last week we have seen three horses that finished behind Ruffina finishing nowhere in Mahalaxmi, hence I fear anything can happen in Ruffina’s next race. The people closest to horses have made it like that, hence we say No Certainty in horse racing.

(3)        Veterinarians and track officials who play ball with the fixers, often seen unfit horses are brought to starting stalls, luckily some refused to stall are withdrawn at the last moment, rest are stalled and raced like duds. Racing public is conned.

(4)        There are so many low key races with very small amounts in prize money, and the average trainers and jockeys are only earning a meager salary. The temptation to become rich may lead to fixing because it is understandable, lesser mortals who cannot make a legitimate living by winning races indulging in malpractices.  But what about the leading owners, trainers, jockeys are committed to IN and OUT running of their wards. Is it because of the arrival of mushrooming private bookmakers as agents of licensed bookmakers accepting laying bets from the public has made it easy to fix any race and channelize the loot to certain people involved. It means, the bookmakers themselves are betting against the horse winning. Simply put, the owners, trainers and jockeys are betting against their own favourites.  Why there is no one at the helm of the clubs to stop such rogues.

(5)        It can be argued that those closest to the sport, owners and breeders are becoming chairman, stewards and committee members have a huge advantage over the average race goers when it comes to information. Naturally those closest to a horse be it a jockey associated with different owners, or a trainer involved professionally with various owners, or the owners having engaged different trainers or jockeys have the IMMORAL advantage, they know in advance most about the scope of their horses whether they will run well or not.

(6)        There have been a number of instances where owners, trainers and jockeys have been caught laying their own horses.  There is no system in place in India to arrest this menace, or punish the erring ones, to suspend, fine or ban them.

(7)        Kieren Fallon, the champion jockey was charged with Conspiracy to Defraud for his role in allegedly fixing almost 100 races. Ferzal Lynch, Darren Williams, were also faced similar charges. Trainer Allen Berry, Ferrier Steve O’Sullivan were accused of plotting to defraud with a horse that was lame when entered a race at Carlisle. These things happen regularly in India at all race centers, only some lesser known jockeys sacrificed their lives. Big fishes easily get off the hook because the regulators themselves are owners, working in tandem with erring professionals. Some say, race-fixing in its baldest terms is impractical, because horses are too unpredictable. Stewards have a jaundice approach in everything, every time they overlook the deep rooted malpractices.

(8)        We cannot forget the majority of race goers lost on fancied runners, were also laid by another knowledgeable section and siphoned off your hard earned money. Bookmakers lure you in by making a horse favourite so you place your hard earned cash on it and lose. If you have an account with a bookmaker and you are winning every time, eventually they will stop accepting your bets with one pretext or another for the simple reason they don’t like you thrashing them every time.

(9)        It is a great feeling for a punter walking off with a fat purse after cracking some bets, overall it is not sufficient to maintain his account in plus, in the long run we all are sore punters for the sole reason that the best horses are ridden to lose at majority of times.

(10)      That is the reason I say, it is not easy to make money from horse racing. Only insiders are amassing wealth. When easy money is pouring in, it is wasted in bars and band parties. Look at the bulging stomach of some ex-jockeys-turned-trainers and estimate how many gallons of liquors there were wasted in and pissed off to achieve such vulgar looks now? They are playing with your money. So my request is curb your hard core punting.