NSW Harness racing scandal - #1 Horse Racing Forum in Australia for Race-Horse News

Mullerbeck

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Original Post 2011-Aug-10, 09:41 AM

Interesting story from today's SMH. I don't know much about harness racing but it sounds pretty dodgy. Do you have any insight, guys?

Records requested as scandal widens
Chris Roots
August 10, 2011

TWO trainers were given letters at Menangle yesterday as the probe into alleged swabbing irregularities - which resulted in harness racing stewards Paul O'Toole and Matthew Bentley handing in their resignations on Monday - widened.

Trainer-driver Mitchell Reese confirmed he received a letter requesting his phone records, while it is believed trainer Michael Russo was given a similar letter. ''I have nothing to hide,'' Reese said. ''If they want my phone records they can have them.''

The Herald believes the investigation centres on the departed stewards not taking pre- and post-race swabs from certain horses in particular races. When informed of the allegations on Monday, O'Toole and Bentley tendered their resignations.

The investigation into O'Toole and Bentley lasted for more than six months after a member of the stewards' panel openly questioned their integrity. O'Toole was the official starter at many meetings and had the responsibility of choosing horses which were to be swabbed pre-race.

The chief executive of Harness Racing NSW, Sam Nati, has personally taken charge of the investigation, along with the sport's new regulatory manager Reid Sanders. ''This is an extremely sobering occurrence for the industry - there is no getting away from that fact,'' Nati said.

''This investigation is ugly and there will be fallout. However, there is no stone being left unturned. As sad and angry as everybody is right now, this should give participants the confidence that Harness Racing NSW is doing everything in its power to ensure a level playing field.''

Bentley had been considered a rising star on the stewards' panel with a background in law, while O'Toole was veteran steward and starter.

The anger was clear at Menangle yesterday but officials were reluctant to talk about the situation. Nati confirmed ''further letters [were] sent to trainers'' yesterday but would not confirm how many. It is believed to be eight.

The corruption is believed to be endemic within the sport and was not isolated. It is believed one trainer almost exclusively nominated horses for meetings where Bentley was rostered to be chairman of stewards.

NSW Harness Racing chief steward Bill Cable said he was disappointed in the conduct of O'Toole and Bentley.

Racing NSW chief steward Ray Murrihy rang Sanders and offered ''whatever help they needed''. ''It is a terrible matter,'' Murrihy said. O'Toole and Bentley could not be contacted by the Herald last night.

Read more: http://www.smh.com.au/sport/horseracing/records-requested-as-scandal-widens-20110809-1ikzn.html#ixzz1UZu0canS


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22 WOOBIA 22

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2011-Aug-10, 10:20 AM

Classic Ray is gunna get in there and help, more secret recordings / videos coming up.

So for the last 6 months , obv longer they have let punters/ owners/ trainers suffer more losses to get more evidence.


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J.Glenoban

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2011-Aug-10, 10:38 AM

The story is starting to have a touch of the Rodney Potters about it. angry


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VoRogue

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2011-Aug-10, 11:47 AM

the chief steward Bill Cable had his car torched a few nights ago while he was at home chin


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VoRogue

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2011-Aug-10, 08:25 PM

this should get the crowds back to the trots, underbelly meets Menangle lol

http://www.dailytelegraph.com.au/news/sydney-nsw/life-stable-for-colourful-former-cop-kim-hollingsworth/story-e6freuzi-1226112023451


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bluebaggers

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2011-Aug-11, 08:47 AM

NSW is in a state of dissaray at the moment.

Will this rise in prizemoney only promote more of this???


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Genghis

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2011-Aug-11, 09:41 AM

VoRogue writes ... 2011-Aug-10, 11:47 AM

the chief steward Bill Cable had his car torched a few nights ago while he was at home chin

Top interview on radio TAB this morning


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The Jackal

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2011-Aug-11, 10:32 AM

Looks like the new track isn't the only thing with a bias? dry


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Arsenal

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2011-Aug-13, 11:36 AM

NSW harness racing has a long standing smell...........chief stewards' car fire bombed ...Ron Bottle suffered the same treatment when he was chief and perp never caught.

The late Jack Greig when chief steward in QLD came home one night after the trots to find a stinking sanitary can had been emptied on his front porch.

He suspected he knew the trainer/driver involved but he was never charged.

Stewards' cars at trotting meetings have been vandalised in the past..................but never fire bombed.


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Peter Mair

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2011-Aug-23, 10:15 PM

The 'red-hots' scandal: the implications for better racing management are equally welcome

The 7.30 Report on ABC tonight (in NSW) featured a crisis of integrity confronting the administrators of trotting in NSW -- 'red hot' hardly captures the essence of the apparent corruption and 'pretty stupid' hardly captures the ease with which intelligent investigators will round up the beneficiary insiders and perpetrators.

There will be no point taking swab samples now from the winners of suspect races not swabbed on the day -- as with the foottballers, the evidence of 'prior knowledge' will be found in the betting account records of punters placing uncharacteristically large bets on suspect contenders that won regularly and unexpectedly. The prospect is that the available facts -- winning bets on horses not swabbed -- will be sufficient to identify punters acting with inside information, and having identified those punters it will be a short step to finding the real offenders.

There is no suggestion of comparable corruption in the racing industry -- on the contrary, the combination of random and no-discretion swabbing procedures, coupled with unannounced stable inspections et al renders almost inconcievable the prospect of deliberate drug offences.

However, having closed that option, the minds of the devious turn to different tactics -- in particular, horses being run deliberately inconsistently.

Whatever, the wanted answers are found along the same path: there is no point setting up a sting unless those on the inside place bets to exploit their advantage. Beyond that it is a matter of the stewards working back from an unexpected winner to find the patterns in which punters won, especially punters regularly associated with winners having the same connections.

The investigation of such sophisticated offences ican becomplex -- not least because contrived results will have passed the first hurdle of stewards race-day scrutiny. More generally, a successful prosecution will hardly be sustained with a single offence: it will take time for investigations to find evidence of repeated offences and the point may come when the pattern is so clear that an offence can be predicted.

The important point to be made here is that, as with the footballers and redhots rorters, racing stewards will have to cast aside the fear of following Lot's wife and be prepared to look back, to initiate a retrospective inquiry into race results that were 'accepted' at face value on the day.

I will be happy to be corrected but I suspect the first such looking-back inquiry into a 'merits offence' revealed by statistical inference will be the first. Bring it on.


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TMTHERAVEN

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2011-Aug-23, 11:16 PM

Peter, to investigate and successfully prosecute a case (or as you suggest many cases) of what is in essence "form reversals" is going to be impossible. Well, maybe not impossible, but so costly as to be far too much of a drain on the industry. Not only that, there will be no "winners" as the negative media coverage will only serve to turn people away from racing and thus reduce pool sizes and industry earnings.

Over here in England, and I will admit it was a badly managed case, they couldn't even successfully prosecute in the Keiran Fallon/Myles Rodgers/Philip Sherke et al in a trial where they spent £10m! You are suggesting many more and much more complex trials based on betting trends as to who backed a horse when in its career and did it win they day the money was on etc??? Absurd to think you could ever prove anything.

You need to give this issue a rest mate.


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Arsenal

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2011-Aug-24, 08:23 AM

A DRAMATIC twist has emerged in the drug scandal engulfing New South Wales harness racing with owner Mark Vallender, who was warned off yesterday, identified as a close associate of disgraced steward Matthew Bentley.

BRENT ZERAFA reports in the SYDNEY TELEGRAPH that Harness Racing NSW slapped Vallender with an indefinite ban after he failed to comply with a request to hand over phone records.

HRNSW is investigating a link between Vallender and Bentley.

Vallender also has an interest in thoroughbred racing and owns a four-year-old galloper called Bag Of Nickels with Peter Michael Bentley, confirmed as the father of Bentley, the steward who tendered his resignation on August 8 after a HRNSW internal investigation into the scandal.
Racing NSW chief executive Peter V'Landys confirmed last night he had received correspondence from his harness counterparts and intended to issue Vallender with a show-cause notice as to why he should not also be banned from thoroughbred racing.

Harness stewards are not allowed to own thoroughbred racehorses but there is nothing to stop Bentley celebrating a Bag Of Nickels victory, as he did with Vallender at Goulburn on June 10.

Vallender, who has bought and raced 29 harness horses since 2008, refused to comment when contacted yesterday.

"Ring me back in 15 minutes," he said but failed to return further calls. Bentley could not be contacted.

Vallender was one of a large group of harness racing drivers, trainers, owners and punters -- believed to be more than 27 -- who on August 9 were summoned to hand over information relating to the drug scandal.

While HRNSW is still investigating whether the rules of racing have been breached, NSW police are looking into claims sensitive information was leaked about which horses were to be drug-tested before certain races.

It is feared those gaining the information would race horses with banned substances in their system without fear of being caught.

Vallender has not been accused of any wrong-doing. Stewards have warned him off only for failing to hand over his phone records.

Asked if Vallender was the only one who had not co-operated, HRNSW boss Sam Nati declined to comment.

STORY SOURCE: SYDNEY TELEGRAPH – NEWS LIMITED.

Posted from www.letsgohorseracing.com........a must read web site.


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Peter Mair

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2011-Aug-24, 08:29 AM

Don't mention the war

I am not sure what to make of this response to having better quality controls:

..........there will be no "winners" as the negative media coverage will only serve to turn people away from racing and thus reduce pool sizes and industry earnings.

I would have thought that confidence in the management of integrity was critical to community support of racing.

The difference from what happened in the UK case is that the evidence is not the subjective opinion of 'running dead' but the hard objective evidence of betting activity showing some insiders having prior knowledge of form reversals.

Already in the UK, it is common for the stewards to review prior performances to assess if a horse was run dead -- and to penalise offences considered proved.


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manikato1

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2011-Aug-24, 09:10 PM

But it is not even close to that simple. Once you have identified the betting trends, you then have to prove that the horses were either a)running dead when they didn't win, or b) were "unfairly" on when they won. You also conveniently rule out the fact that trainers (and owners) know their horses. There are probably many times a horse gets beat at short odds, but the trainer simply knows the horse is under the odds.

I know from my experience with my family in greyhounds that there are times we have not backed our dogs regularly, but got on when they were big prices and won, because we knew the dogs intimately enough to know when they were in the right races at the right price. Sometimes they have gone around as short priced favourites in races in which we thought they had no chance. This is what happens when you know your horse/dog.


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Jeunes

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2011-Aug-24, 09:25 PM

Nothing against the trotting industry but until you have long straights etc, it is so easy to get buried behind the leader or get caught in the running line when a 3 wide train goes past you. I went to Menangle a year ago with a couple of my mates for a Tuesday meeting and we could not believe some of the minor placemoney. It would not have paid for the petrol or chaff for a week and if this was the metro what are the country meets like?


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