Jockey Scandals
In the final week of 2007 Durham born jockey Robert Thornton became the latest jockey to run afoul of the all-powerful jockey club.
His crime was to take a wrong turn at a shrub on the Cheltenham cross-country course, setting off at high speed into no-man's land.
Whilst this misdemeanour in no way benefited Thornton in the context of the race, the powers that be saw fit to suspend Thornton for 10 days over the Christmas period - one of national hunt racing's most active and lucrative race periods.
With Thornton now back at the races, and considering employing the services of an onboard GPRS device during his cross country romps, the time appears ripe to investigate some of the more serious contraventions of horseracing law in the last several decades.
Lester Piggott defies the taxman Born with an unfortunate name but blessed with the greatest talent of his era, jockey Lester Piggott dominated flat racing for over two decades, bringing home winners in all the Classics whilst also claiming the Ascot Gold Cup 11 occasions.
Unfortunately, at some point during this period of unsurpassed success, Lester Piggott made the decision to stop paying taxes.
In 1985, the year he quit riding to take up training, Lester Piggott was nabbed by the internal revenue services and sent to jail for three years for tax irregularities amounting to £3.
2 million.
To add insult to injury, he was forced to return his OBE to the Queen.
After his sojourn in jail, Piggott returned to the racetrack and put in an impressive curtain call, winning two more classics before retiring for a second time in 1995.
Kieren Fallon in a fix Kieren Fallon was well on his way to establishing himself as one of the greatest Irish jockeys in the history of the sport, taking six Champion Jockey titles before inexplicably deciding to supplement his income by fixing races.
In March of 2004 Kieren Fallon was accused of deliberately giving away the lead in a race at Lingfield.
Inattentive riding allowed another horse to pass Fallon's short-odd favourite mount, an event which immediately drew the attention of the press.
The situation escalated rapidly, with Fallon arrested in September of 2004 and charged with conspiracy to defraud.
Fortunately for Fallon the evidence against him didn't stand up in court.
His response to this reprieve was, however, unusual.
Fallon decided to start on a course of banned substances, and was soon caught out by the French racing authorities and suspended from racing for 6 months.
Since then Fallon has twice more returned positive tests for banned substances, and can look forward to a return to the saddle when well into his eighties.
National hunt dopes In national hunt racing, tricksters have got around the risks of taking banned substances by feeding the substances to racehorses instead.
Whilst poisoning has long been the most popular route to scratching a more competitive opponent from the card, modern fraudsters appear to make do with less terminal interventions.
Take the events of 1997 which saw jockeys Dean Gallagher, Jamie Osborne and Leighton Aspell come under close scrutiny when their short odds horses tested positive for banned substances in a national hunt race.
Charges were that the horses had been drugged into losing to benefit long-odds punters.
Fortunately for the three jockeys the trial once again ran afoul of the demands of the legal system and all three were eventually freed to return to their lives in horseracing.
Nevertheless the event sparked a return to vigilance that might go along way towards explaining why Andrew Thornton was slapped with a 10 day ban for taking a wrong turn.
His crime was to take a wrong turn at a shrub on the Cheltenham cross-country course, setting off at high speed into no-man's land.
Whilst this misdemeanour in no way benefited Thornton in the context of the race, the powers that be saw fit to suspend Thornton for 10 days over the Christmas period - one of national hunt racing's most active and lucrative race periods.
With Thornton now back at the races, and considering employing the services of an onboard GPRS device during his cross country romps, the time appears ripe to investigate some of the more serious contraventions of horseracing law in the last several decades.
Lester Piggott defies the taxman Born with an unfortunate name but blessed with the greatest talent of his era, jockey Lester Piggott dominated flat racing for over two decades, bringing home winners in all the Classics whilst also claiming the Ascot Gold Cup 11 occasions.
Unfortunately, at some point during this period of unsurpassed success, Lester Piggott made the decision to stop paying taxes.
In 1985, the year he quit riding to take up training, Lester Piggott was nabbed by the internal revenue services and sent to jail for three years for tax irregularities amounting to £3.
2 million.
To add insult to injury, he was forced to return his OBE to the Queen.
After his sojourn in jail, Piggott returned to the racetrack and put in an impressive curtain call, winning two more classics before retiring for a second time in 1995.
Kieren Fallon in a fix Kieren Fallon was well on his way to establishing himself as one of the greatest Irish jockeys in the history of the sport, taking six Champion Jockey titles before inexplicably deciding to supplement his income by fixing races.
In March of 2004 Kieren Fallon was accused of deliberately giving away the lead in a race at Lingfield.
Inattentive riding allowed another horse to pass Fallon's short-odd favourite mount, an event which immediately drew the attention of the press.
The situation escalated rapidly, with Fallon arrested in September of 2004 and charged with conspiracy to defraud.
Fortunately for Fallon the evidence against him didn't stand up in court.
His response to this reprieve was, however, unusual.
Fallon decided to start on a course of banned substances, and was soon caught out by the French racing authorities and suspended from racing for 6 months.
Since then Fallon has twice more returned positive tests for banned substances, and can look forward to a return to the saddle when well into his eighties.
National hunt dopes In national hunt racing, tricksters have got around the risks of taking banned substances by feeding the substances to racehorses instead.
Whilst poisoning has long been the most popular route to scratching a more competitive opponent from the card, modern fraudsters appear to make do with less terminal interventions.
Take the events of 1997 which saw jockeys Dean Gallagher, Jamie Osborne and Leighton Aspell come under close scrutiny when their short odds horses tested positive for banned substances in a national hunt race.
Charges were that the horses had been drugged into losing to benefit long-odds punters.
Fortunately for the three jockeys the trial once again ran afoul of the demands of the legal system and all three were eventually freed to return to their lives in horseracing.
Nevertheless the event sparked a return to vigilance that might go along way towards explaining why Andrew Thornton was slapped with a 10 day ban for taking a wrong turn.