BBC SPORT | Other Sports | Horse Racing



By Richard Griffiths Author of the new book 'Racing in the Dock'

Racing's standing could hardly be lower right now, thanks to a series of damaging corruption revelations that read like they have come straight out of a Dick Francis novel.

Much as the Jockey Club, whose responsibility it is to regulate racing, would like this horrific issue to go away - it just won't.

Take last week. Dermot Browne, a disgraced former jockey and trainer, was banned from racing for a further 20 years.

Racing's troubles

Corruption: Main claims

Q&A: Cornelius Lysaght

Timeline: Crucial dates

Panorama: Full story

He had already been 'warned off' from the sport for an initial 10-year period.

Browne was banned for his startling confession that he doped more than 20 horses in a two-month blitz in the autumn of 1990.

He left the Jockey Club's central London headquarters a contrite but knowing figure.

Browne warned that many of his accomplices in wrong-doing were still involved in the sport at a prominent level.

Further damaging headlines for the sport could come within days, as a result of an inquiry into whether Cheltenham Gold Cup-winning jockey Graham Bradley should also be banned from the sport.

Happier times for Graham Bradley after winning the Champion Hurdle on Collier Bay
Bradley after his 1996 Champion Hurdle win

Bradley has admitted passing on privileged and sensitive punting information - for his own reward - to Brian Wright, the man suspected of heading one of Britain's biggest ever drug smuggling rings.

Wright is the key to this whole sorry affair.

Browne claims he not only doped 23 horses on his behalf, but also conspired with other jockeys to help fixed races.

The Irishman says he did it so that Wright, who is currently on the run and the subject of an international arrest warrant, could make money from punting.

Wright and his gang, many of whom are currently serving lengthy prison terms, are also alleged to have used Britain's racecourse betting rings to launder their drugs money.

Racing remains as vulnerable as ever to corrupt elements

This whole scenario seems too grim to be true. But it isn't.

I have just written a book investigating horse racing's corruption problems - called 'Racing in the Dock' - and even now I can hardly believe how serious those problems have been.

In the wake of scandal

Regardless of what happens at the Bradley inquiry, the Jockey Club is keen to reach closure on this issue.

It has had to deal with highly damaging publicity since June, when strict reporting restrictions on the activities of Wright and his cohorts were lifted.

But closure is not going to happen. For a start, racing remains as vulnerable as ever to corrupt elements infiltrating the sport.

Can we be sure that further individuals or gangs aren't attempting to fix races? The answer, sadly, remains no.

Take the hugely influential Panorama programme, 'The Corruption of Racing'.

It highlighted alleged links between jockeys and Chinese gangsters, both in Hong Kong and in Manchester.

Brian Wright is at the centre of the corruption claims
Wright has been in Cyprus since 1999

That does not appear to be a healthy association and Panorama producer Stephen Scott chillingly warned the involvement of Triads in British racing could represent "Brian Wright Mark II".

And there are currently plenty of rumours circulating to suggest it is highly unlikely that they are the only threat to racing's integrity.

It is important to remember that Brian Wright - by his own admission - arranged to fix hundreds of races during a 15-year period, at least.

All the time, racing collectively remained blissfully and sleepily ignorant of his activities.

Unless serious and major changes are made to the way racing is policed, no one can be sure that a similar thing won't happen again.

Richard Griffiths' book Racing In The Dock is out now, published by Highdown.