Author Topic: Qld Harness Industry Race Fixing Charges (Read 19085 times)

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-12, 04:20 PM **Reply #25** »

QRIC Welcomes Perjury Charge Against Alleged Match Fixer
12 December 2017
The Queensland Racing Integrity Commissioner has welcomed the decision to charge a harness
racing code participant with perjury.

“The Racing Crime Squad has charged Mathew Neilson with perjury following evidence he gave at
a Crime and Corruption Commission hearing,” Commissioner Ross Barnett said.

“The Racing Integrity Commission is working hard to restore integrity to harness racing and where
we can enlist the help of other law enforcement agencies we will.

“I’d like to thank the CCC for its support,” Commissioner Barnett said.

The Commissioner has previously suspended 35-year-old Mr Neilson’s harness driver and training
licences after he was charged with match fixing last month.

Ten people associated with harness racing in Queensland have now been charged with match fixing
and other offences as a result of the work of investigators involved in Operation Oscar Swallowtail,
including a 65-year-old Yeronga man who was arrested at the weekend.

He was charged after Saturday’s arrests of drivers Shane Graham and Leonard Cain and a woman
who has previously been a licensed trainer.

All three have been charged with offences including match fixing.

The industry licences of Mr Graham and Mr Cain have also been suspended.

“I believe the creation of the Commission has given some people an avenue to come forward with
greater confidence to share what they know, which is why we’re seeing these results,” Commissioner
Barnett said.

“But it’s important to remember that those charged so far only represent a small proportion of the
total participants in the sport.

“Law-abiding participants can be assured that confidence in the harness racing code will improve
once the race fixers are identified, charged, convicted and banished from the sport,” Commissioner
Barnett said.
ENDS

There's many a slip between the cup and the lip ............ I expect some of these charges will be difficult to prove maybe there'll be some plea bargains being offered IMO it would be a longshot that anyone if convicted would serve time.

Giddy Up

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-13, 09:47 AM **Reply #26** »

Davie Fowler who hosts the top rating radio show Press Room on Monday mornings on Radio TAB started his editorial with his comments on the harness racing match fixing charges.

This is a link...................https://audioboom.com/posts/6545583-press-room-11-12-17

His first guest Mark( aka OBI) Oberhardt from AAP hasn't improved his tipping record by entering into the ALP factional exercises by tipping the word on the street is/was Mark Furner to rep[lace Grace Grace as Racing Minister admittedly this was before the official ALP announcement later that day that the poisoned chalice has been given to the local Sandgate MLA Stirling Hinchcliffe.

Davie is still getting left and right hooks and body punches from his so called mate Archie as is Kevin Seymour who Archie calls Clip Clop.....it would be quite amusing so long as you're not the target of his diatribes....the resident of Yeronga arrested on Saturday and not identified in the CM story has been named by Archie allegedly he is Peter Poulsen an owner connected to Shane Graham .

How will Archie go with getting Media accreditation he's had no luck in trying to join the BRC also the APHRC which is promoting membership at only $2 a head....but he's on the inside with someone either at QRIC or the cops.

Giddy Up

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-14, 07:31 PM **Reply #27** »

'Irrelevant and corrupt' - Does harness racing have a future?
By Bren O'Brien 8 hours ago

Lazarus is the superstar that nobody knowsImage: Getty Images
When news broke on the morning of the third Ashes Test that Indian bookies had boasted to Britain’s The Sun newspaper that they could fix cricket matches, it quickly became an international story.

While betting corruption and cricket have staged a delicate dance since the major scandals involving Hansie Cronje and the like broke in the early 2000s, there is always a raised eyebrow when such brazen claims of match fixing are raised. Why? Because society still cares about the integrity of cricket.

Last Saturday, three significant Queensland harness racing identities, Shane Graham, Leonard Cain and Vicki Rasmussen, were charged with match fixing and it barely made it past the court notices and in brief sections of the paper.

The people involved are charged with serious crimes, essentially fixing a race result for the purposes of profit. These crimes carry maximum terms of 10 years in jail.

In the last six months, three of Queensland's five leading harness drivers have been charged with match fixing, while there have also been arrests in Victoria in a long-running investigation into impropriety there.

Each harness racing scandal that breaks, and they seem to be weekly at the moment, barely raises a murmur in the general public.

The punting fraternity, those who essentially fund the sport, through betting on it invariably trot out the old ‘Cheats on Seats’ and ‘Crims on Rims’ references.

But while cheating and skullduggery in the sport of silks and sulkies is hardly a new thing, it certainly casts a pall over an industry which appears to be dying a slow and painful death.

You see, the arrest of Graham, who is Queensland’s leading driver, as well as Rasmussen and Cain occurred less than 12 hours after a race once revered as one of the biggest in any code, the Inter Dominion, was staged at Perth’s Gloucester Park.

The win of harness racing’s new superstar Lazarus (at 11pm AEDT on a Friday night) got even less coverage than the arrests in Queensland on Saturday.

So if no one, apart from the crowd at Gloucester Park, saw Australia’s best harness race, did it really happen?

Next year, the Inter Dominion returns to Melbourne for the first time since 2008. Well when I say Melbourne, it’s Melton, 35km west of the city at a facility opened in 2009 to service the needs of the sports participants and certainly not its dwindling fan base.

While organisers will no doubt do their best to promote the event, with Lazarus’ title defence centre stage, the Inter Dominion won’t make a ripple in the competitive sporting landscape of the Victorian capital.

Certainly nothing like the 40,000 who packed Moonee Valley for the 1985 edition. At that time, the sport was in its prime, helped by the fact that night-time entertainment in Melbourne outside of the trots, was virtually non-existent.

The broader question is does harness racing, once a thriving sport in the 1970s and 1980s, have a pulse in Australia? On the current evidence, the news is grim.

The diagnosis becomes completely terminal if it can’t rid itself of the cancer of corruption, which has been a long-time problem for the sport.

If those within the industry - and we are talking about major players here - don’t act with integrity then the social licence of the sport is under threat.

We saw how close the greyhound industry went to being banned (especially in NSW), when major players acted like cowboys (and worse), and lost the faith of the general public.

It’s a pretty simple formula for harness racing. If the cheating and corruption reach a level where it costs more to enforce the law then the benefits which flow back to the community, then it will quickly lose the last skerrick of relevance it has.

At that point, it will be consigned to history. That will be a great shame.

Bren O'Brien is a lifelong follower of harness racing.

Tragic how harness racing has gone downhill since the glory days when a night at the trots was a wonderful entertainment experience whether Albion Park...Redcliffe...Gold Coast.... Tweed Heads.....Moonee Valley...Harold Park or Showgrounds ....or Wayville ...... the relocation to out of town sites like Melton and Menangle has seen a downturn in oncourse attendance still hardly anyone goes to the trots at Albion Park or I'm told the dogs are the same.

Giddy Up

arthur · « 2017-Dec-14, 09:46 PM **Reply #28** »

Quote from: Arsenal on 2017-Dec-14, 07:31 PM

Certainly nothing like the 40,000 who packed Moonee Valley for the 1985 edition. At that time, the sport was in its prime, helped by the fact that night-time entertainment in Melbourne outside of the trots, was virtually non-existent.

I was in Brisbane in '85 for a reunion and went to 'Silks' / trots as one activity . .

There were 2 bookies in one room and I asked one where the main betting ring was . .

"You're standing in it," was his reply

So trotting in Brisvegas was not 'hot-to-trot' in those days

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-18, 08:22 AM **Reply #29** »

IF QRIC NEEDS OUTSIDE HELP IT’S TIME TO SHOW A FEW HIGH PROFILE STEWARDS THE DOOR – THERE IS NO INTEGRITY AT THE ‘RED HOTS’

THE mail is strong that the Queensland Racing Integrity Unit has sent an SOS to two of the most high profile stewards in the land – former Sydney sheriff Ray Murrihy and his Melbourne counterpart Terry Bailey.

Peter Cameron reports in his TRAPS column for The Sunday Mail that QRIC boss Ross Barnett has sought the advice of the duo in sorting out a myriad of problems from ‘race fixing’ at the ‘red hots’ to ‘a growing problem’ which stewards are struggling to address at a major racing centre outside of Brisbane.

The year is about to end with the image of racing in Queensland at an all-time low. The Eagle Farm debacle and the inability of the Brisbane Racing Club to address a series of allegations levelled at directors and some key staff along with allegations that those running the show at Albion Park had ‘inside knowledge’ of the ‘rorts’ that are being alleged and unearthed in harness racing is becoming embarrassing.

The question needs to be asked: If the stewards appointed to do the job were effective would QRIC need to seek outside help from Murrihy and Bailey?

The answer is simple: Of course they wouldn’t.

The solution: Get rid of those who are not doing their job and have been regarded as a laughing stock for so long. The ‘racing fixing’ being exposed at the trots has been going on for years – right under the nose of some highly experienced stewards. It took the animal liberationists to unearth the ‘live baiting’ scandal that had been going on for decades at the dogs – again right under the noses of those responsible for eradicating it. And the gallops aren’t exactly squeaky clean either with punters lacking confidence in the local product as indicated by declining betting activity on Queensland racing. Stories of horses being treated with illegal ‘hits’ on the way to the races are commonplace. Stewards are obviously aware fining trainers for late arrival of starters at the track but the fines being imposed are slaps on the wrists compared to the betting returns when horses win. The sad aspect is that some high profile officials and integrity officers are being accused of being party to what is going on which simply isn’t good enough.

It took the exposes of a brave investigative journalist like Archie Butterfly to make a disbelieving racing world stand up and listen. Now it’s up to the authorities to put up or shut up. No-one is taking any action against his allegations. They can no longer continue to use the unacceptable excuses that these are the ‘rantings of a mad man who wouldn’t know.’ The fact remains he is far from mad, smarter than most of them and he does know exactly what is going on and will continue to write it and embarrass them until they do something about it.

The role of the mainstream racing media in all of this has been disgusting. While Queensland Newspapers continues to look after those in important place who look after them (regardless of how corrupt these high flyers might be), the chief writer for the only other supposedly ‘well read’ outlet slides down the bannister trying to stay clear of any controversy but winding up with a bum full of splinters. Now we have the racing writers dragged into the shit heap with one of their own the subject of some very serious allegations being levelled by some respected racing folks thanks to Archie Butterfly. Gone are the days when corrupt newspaper editors and publishers could be controlled by those not wanting stories written. But that’s a subject for another day – isn’t it Mike and Frank?

It will be interesting to see whether The Courier-Mail stands by their freelance racing writer Grant Stockwell who is in more shit than a Werribee duck at present. Will his good mate Racing Nathan’ rush back from a holiday junket to protect him? Not likely! And what about all the good men in the Racing Media Association? They say you can’t chose your relatives but you can chose your friends. Plenty of bad choices made over the years guys – what do you reckon? At the end of the day there needs to be some official announcement from QRIC or RQ on whether the racing media credentials of Mr Stockwell are still intact and whether the police are going to investigate the allegations made by a prominent racing lady and her family against him that seem to have been duck-shoved around by the coppers for far too long.

We have a new Government and a new Racing Minister and a whole heap of old problems confronting racing. In the past there have been Racing Inquiries for all the wrong political reasons. The time has come to convene another one for all the right reasons – to determine what is going on at Eagle Farm and the BRC; whether Albion Park officials have been involved in ‘race fixing’ and why it continues to occur; to investigate what is happening with the tubing of horses and treating of starters on the way to the track and whether there is some official cover-up involving some stables and finally to make the racing media answerable for why from back in the days of journalists running bets from the jockeys room there has been no serious inquiry into why some of these blokes are copping all sorts of corruption money and certainly aren’t doing their jobs.

As for the stewards – well a broom should be put through that department starting with putting some at the top who seem incapable of doing their jobs out to pasture. RQ had an opportunity to bring in some high flying stewards from interstate, headed by RV’s Terry Bailey and Dayle Brown back in the era of ‘little King Kev’ Dixon but for some strange reason he didn’t want them. The direction integrity headed back then can only be gauged by the fact that a series of Chief Stewards have subsequently been shown the door and those who have survived are rated rank failures.

www.lghr.com........................Plenty of flak coming out of this one....the blog referred to contains threats against Grant Stockwell ( it's a criminal offence to use a carriage service to threaten or menace) the dispute which started out as a personal injury to one's pride has turned into a full scale assault and isn't pleasant reading.

I must say I'm surprised the allegations against certain high profile harness racing people hasn't resulted in some form of legal retaliation maybe it's in the pipeline who knows but obviously there needs to be an investigation beyond what the QRIC has already done.....political excuses would no doubt be that matters before the courts are subjudice and it wouldn't be proper to commence an inquiry until those matters have been dealt with.

The report from Poleline Pete in yesty's SM that Barnett has called upon Terry Bailey and Ray Murrihy to help sort out whatever it is needs sorting seems a bit desperate.

Giddy Up

[/colour

Colinjohn · « 2017-Dec-21, 05:21 PM **Reply #30** »

Anyone know if Stewards inquiry into Race 8 at Albion Park last Saturday Night has been finalized. Archie has been on their case.

Thebigdog · « 2017-Dec-21, 10:03 PM **Reply #31** »

Its on tomorrow at 10am.

Thebigdog · « 2017-Dec-22, 01:41 PM **Reply #32** »

I'm hearing she got 12 months disqualification.

Colinjohn · « 2017-Dec-22, 02:03 PM **Reply #33** »

Confirmed. What about the others?

Thebigdog · « 2017-Dec-22, 02:36 PM **Reply #34** »

There are no charges against any others and none that can be laid without evidence. There's no way grant can be charged as there's no possible way this was pre planed, you just cant plan to be in that position after a 2600m standing start and a full field of 14 horses.This is just a case of her looking over and seeing him there and stupidly reacting by pulling in.

Case closed,

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-22, 06:25 PM **Reply #35** »

Harness Driver Trista Dixon’s Licence Disqualified
22 December 2017
Stewards from the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission have today disqualified the licence of
Brisbane harness driver Trista Dixon.
She was charged last Saturday night under the Australian Harness Racing Rules with acting to
advantage another driver in Race 8 - the Group 2 Egmont Park Stud 2017 Darrell Alexander
Memorial Trotting Championship Final.
It’s alleged Mrs Dixon breached rule 240 (a) (i) by directing the gelding “Foursharesmorebeers”
inwards at the 100 metres to afford the horse “Our Overanova” clear running, and as a consequence
the horse “Iona Grinner”, which was to the inside of “Foursharesmorebeers” sustained interference.
After resuming their inquiry into Race 8 today, stewards determined that Mrs Dixon acted with
“conscious effort” to advantage another driver.
She has been disqualified from competition for 12 months, to take immediate effect.
END
The relevant rule 240 (a) (1)
240. A person shall not, whether alone or in an association with others, do, permit or suffer anything before, during or after a race which in the opinion of the Stewards or Controlling Body:-

(a) may cause someone to be:-

(i) unlawfully advantaged, or

(ii) unlawfully disadvantaged, or

(iii) penalised.

(b) is corrupt.

(c) is improper.

Unless granted a stay of proceedings with the intention of appealing the decision IMO there will be some movement from the Dixon residence as a disqualified person cannot associate with other licensees eg Grant Dixon her husband or partner .

Restrictions
259. (1) A disqualified person or a person whose name appears in the current list of disqualifications published or adopted by a recognised harness racing authority or a person warned off cannot do any of the following -

(a) associate with persons connected with the harness racing industry for purposes relating to that industry;

Giddy Up

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-23, 08:58 AM **Reply #36** »

Who’s driving tonight, dear
Wife banned for mid-race move
ROBERT CRADDOCK

Picture
WINNING TEAM: Grant and Trista Dixon have incurred the wrath of racing stewards.

QUEENSLAND’S leading reinswoman has been disqualified for a year for providing a gap for her husband to win a race.

Harness racing stewards have disqualified Trista Dixon for her drive on the gelding Foursharesmorebeers at Albion Park on Saturday night.

Stewards found Dixon deliberately moved her horse inwards at the 100m mark to afford the horse Our Overanova, driven by her husband Grant, clear running after it had been blocked for a run at various stages in the home straight.

Grant Dixon trained both horses.

In the process of giving her husband a clear run Mrs Dixon interfered with the horse Iona Grinner which was inside her horse.

Our Overanova won the race but stewards swiftly opened an inquiry and have disqualified Trista Dixon with immediate affect.

The disqualification casts another shadow over the controversial harness racing industry which has been rocked by unrelated charges of race-rigging over the past year. Three of the top six drivers of recent seasons – Shane Graham, Bart Cockburn and Matthew Neilson – have been the subject of race-fixing charges.

The Dixons are the most successful husband and wife team in the Queensland harness-racing industry.

Last season Trista drove 83 winners for more prizemoney than any other Queensland reinswoman while Grant trained more than twice as many winners as anyone in the state.

The Queensland harness industry is on its knees following the race-fixing investigations and participants are fearing for its future.

The industry wants government support for a new grandstand at Albion Park and a new track at the Gold Coast to replace the old one which will be used as part of the Commonwealth Games precinct. But the chances of government support are reduced with every scandal.

Giddy Up

Stan Still · « 2017-Dec-24, 09:25 AM **Reply #37** »

Now thats a bit of a turnaround, normally Crash just pens stories that try to boost the image of the red hots while conveniently forgetting all the race fixing charges, perjury etc et etc. If one was a bit mischievous one could think that Klip Klop Kev might have been slinging Crash a few sheckles every week for these good news red hots articles, nah that would never happen

would it !!!!!!

Mick · « 2017-Dec-24, 12:51 PM **Reply #38** »

That is a pathetic slur on Crash's integrity.He is a honest,genuine & generous person.
You have obviously never met him.

Devil · « 2017-Dec-24, 03:37 PM **Reply #39** »

Like him or not Archie can be entertaining
https://twitter.com/archiebutterfly/status/944540236587192320

Stan Still · « 2017-Dec-26, 09:07 AM **Reply #40** »

Oh , I agree, there is NO WAY Crash would accept anything like cash, free lunch, free dinner at Silks, free parking or anything like that from Klip Klop to pen some positive and enlightening yarns about the red hots. What is so surprising is that that unholy rag and that's probably overstated, more Murdochs equal to a roll of shit paper, would bother running stories on a sport thats got a worse smell than the local sewerage plant. But cause its penned by Crash might give the sport some authenticity ????? dont think so

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-28, 09:11 AM **Reply #41** »

An industry 'disintegrating': Fixing scandal rocks the world of Queensland harness racing

By Josh Robertson

Updated about an hour ago

A race at Albion Park that was allegedly fixed.
Photo: A race at Albion Park this year that was allegedly fixed. (Supplied: Queensland Police)

A race-fixing scandal that has rocked harness racing shows how professional gamblers use a "cookie-cutter model" to corrupt sporting champions for profit, police investigators say.

An unprecedented crackdown by the Queensland Racing Integrity Commission (QRIC) and the Queensland Police racing crime squad has triggered a wave of arrests in 2017, including some of the sport's leading drivers and identities.

Police have made 10 arrests so far, with one of the industry's rising stars telling a Brisbane court "everybody's doing it".

"I think the stature of people we've arrested should be a concern for everybody involved with the sport," QRIC commissioner Ross Barnett said.

Police allege race fixing determined the result of this race at Albion Park in Brisbane in October 2017.

Photo: An October race police allege was the subject of race fixing. (Supplied: Queensland Police)

The unfolding corruption crisis has dragged harness racing — which has battled for decades to shed a chequered reputation — to a fatal crossroads, according to broadcaster and racing administrator David Fowler.

Mr Fowler, chairman of the Albion Park Harness Racing Club, said each new public revelation of alleged cheating was "like a wound that keeps bursting open".

"Particularly for people in the betting world who rely on confidence and rely on integrity to have races run correctly, when we see this happening, we start to see, I believe, our industry disintegrating," he said.

"From a stakeholder's point of view, whether you're a trainer, a driver, an owner, a breeder, these are unprecedented times.

"They're low on morale — they don't know who the next person [arrested] may be."

Drivers groomed, offered gifts

Queensland's racing watchdog was born out of animal cruelty revelations in the greyhound industry.

But it has turned to rooting out alleged corruption in an industry long dogged by rumours of race-fixing.

For the first time, suspected cheats face the scrutiny of police phone taps, bugs, star chamber hearings and the threat of criminal charges and jail time.

Racing crime squad Detective Sergeant Tracey Pelling said the probe had shown "drivers are effectively handled by professional punters" who profit most from race-fixing.

"They're groomed, they're offered gifts, they're given a lot of praise, often being told they're going to be the next big thing," she said.

She said gamblers would take drivers out, "offer them dinners, drinks, sometimes give them mobile phones".

"As a result, the driver feels that he's indebted and that really gets played on by the handlers," Detective Sergeant Pelling said.

"So the next thing they do is [say] 'You owe me', and they ask them to do something in a race for them."

'Everybody's doing it'

A Brisbane court has heard one of harness racing's rising stars, Barton Cockburn, was paid $200 for one rigged race.

A gambler in turn made $33,000 from betting on the race.

Former Harness racing driver Barton Cockburn (right) leaving the Magistrates Court in Brisbane.
Photo: Barton Cockburn (right) leaving court after pleading guilty to two counts of facilitating match-fixing. (AAP: Darren England)

Cockburn, who pleaded guilty to race-fixing in October, told the court through his lawyer that "everybody's doing it".

Detective Sergeant Pelling said handlers were using "a cookie-cutter model" from sport to sport.

Queensland Racing Integrity Commissioner Ross Barnett.
Photo: Commissioner Ross Barnett said the arrests should be a concern to all involved in the sport. (ABC News)

"You could just about write a business model on what they actually do, because they just move on to the next person and … the next sport," he said.

Sergeant Pelling said a veteran racing steward recently told her "we've achieved in 12 months what they couldn't achieve in 20 years".

Mr Barnett said the investigation had revealed "a level of sophistication and knowledge that is exhibited by organised crime".

Far cry from harness racing heyday

In its heyday in the 1970s, up to 30,000 spectators flocked to the Albion Park raceway to watch the 'trots'.

Today, betting revenue — the sport's lifeblood — has been on the wane, falling for the first time below greyhound industry takings.

YouTube: Harness racing in more popular times

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMcBJE5tffY

Mr Barnett said he believed this "probably reflects a lack of confidence by the punting community in the sport".

"The fact is we've arrested three of the top six drivers in Queensland in the last six months, plus several others who've [allegedly] benefited from inside information," he said.

Mr Fowler said the scandal was the last thing harness racing needed.

"It's not like turnover is brilliant — it's not like thousands are flocking to Albion Park or Redcliffe," he said.

"The sport's under the pump — there's no sugar-coating it.

"To have something like this happen over a period of time — and also, with no end in sight — I think it does put the industry on a very dangerous path, to a point where some tough decisions may have to be made."

Mr Fowler said he thought the industry could regain public confidence, but not easily.

"I don't think the sport is as crooked as what it may have been considered in the 1970s, but the damage was done then and it's taken a hell of a long time to repair it and some will say maybe it was irreparable," he said.

Topics: harness-racing, horse-racing, sport, crime, law-crime-and-justice, qld, australia, brisbane-4000

First posted about 2 hours ago

Harness Racing has been in decline for decades since night racing started at Albion Park there were harness racing clubs throughout the State from the far north to the border at Tweed Heads before the lights were turned on at Redcliffe Gold Coast Rockhampton Townsville Cairns harness racing on Saturday afternoons each week at Rocklea Ipswich Maryborough Mackay Toowoomba.....only two night meetings survive with the occasional day meeting at Marburg and some show trotting revivals. A sad and sorry ending with the current rorts still to be tried in the courts.

Giddy Down

Bubbasmith · « 2017-Dec-28, 10:32 AM **Reply #42** »

"A Brisbane court has heard one of harness racing's rising stars, Barton Cockburn, was paid $200 for one rigged race"

OMG a bloke took $200 to rig a race, they must de desperate up in bananaland.

arthur · « 2017-Dec-28, 01:09 PM **Reply #43** »

How much do they charge in 'the place to be'?

Arsenal · « 2017-Dec-28, 05:57 PM **Reply #44** »

The best part of the ABC story IMO is the You Tube video of the 1993 Interdominion won by Jack Morris the on course MC was Marsh Dobson ......love the trots in the good old days.

https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=SMcBJE5tffY

Giddy Up

.

Peter Mair · « 2017-Dec-28, 09:49 PM **Reply #45** »

The administrators of the 'red hots' could learn from the racing industry -- especially Victorian racing -- the fields need to be inflated and appearance-money paid down to 10th place.

Inflated fields make it easier for participants to smoke one in or otherwise schedule race placings -- this given the confusing consequences of cluttered fields are much more evident and any suggestion of 'rigging' more difficult to sustain.

These investigations are bringing harness racing into disrepute -- it is less likely that renewed promises to race truly will be credible.

Stan Still · « 2017-Dec-29, 09:41 AM **Reply #46** »

One could easily die laughing at PM's comment....."These investigations are bringing harness racing into disrepute".....have you been in a coma for the last half century....the red hots have never been reputable and whats worse is that the poor young novice journo from ABC actually thought having the Chook Plucker on ABC as a "harness racing official" gave his yarm some respectability....WRONG......Klip Klops Candyman is allegedly in it all up to his ever expanding neckline as time may tell. Everything about Klip Klop Kevs fifedom is corrupted...from the prizemoney take out of annual distribution to the jackpotted mostly rigged UBET races. As many would say if KKK ever got hit by that proverbial bus the red hots would cease, most participants are running n empty as evidenced by guilty race fixer Bart Cockburn attestation, he fixed a race for $200 ????

gunbower · « 2017-Dec-29, 10:02 AM **Reply #47** »

How about having the glamorous Tracey Pelling as the spokesperson for QRIC on corruption matters. This is same official who employed as an investigator one of her facebook friends who just also happened to be a well known picture framer. Go figure.

Stan Still · « 2017-Dec-29, 03:46 PM **Reply #48** »

She is certainly an arresting type.....what gets me the red hots pilot gets $200 for rigging a race and goes to court yet Madam tells all and sundry a "professional punter" won $33,000 on the race but no bugger gets arrested or named...WTF

PoisonPen7 · « 2017-Dec-29, 09:42 PM **Reply #49** »

Quote from: Bubbasmith on 2017-Dec-28, 10:32 AM

"A Brisbane court has heard one of harness racing's rising stars, Barton Cockburn, was paid $200 for one rigged race"

OMG a bloke took $200 to rig a race, they must de desperate up in bananaland.

I know it is a serious subject but for some perverse reason I had a belly laugh at that.

I'm imagining I'm a trotting driver, and a bit devious, and someone approaches me to rig a race. It is agreed then the conversation gets around to how much money I'm going to get paid.

I would start at 5 figures. This bloke does it for $200.

There is a neighbour across the road I cannot stand and wouldn't mind someone putting a bullet in him. I might be able to get this bloke to do the job and talk him down to $150