Report: Jockeys arrested

The arrest of 16 people, including champion jockey Kieren Fallon, in dawn raids was described by police as a matter of 'national significance'.

It is the latest blow to the image of horse racing.

BBC Sport looks at some of the key questions and answers surrounding the claims of race fixing.

Q. What is the latest controversy?

A. Fallon was among 16 people arrested as part of a police investigation into allegations of race fixing.

Fellow jockeys Darren Williams and Fergal Lynch, along with trainer Karl Burke, were also arrested. They deny wrongdoing and have been bailed while police inquiries continue.

City of London police began an investigation into a total of about 80 races after being contacted by racing's regulator, the Jockey Club.

The betting exchange Betfair had initially contacted the Jockey Club, voicing concerns over the betting patterns for a number of races.

Q. Has anything like this happened before?

A. Yes, at the end of the 1990s. Jump jockeys Graham Bradley, Jamie Osborne and Dean Gallagher and Leighton Aspell were among those arrested, plus trainer Charlie Brooks, but the cases collapsed and they were all cleared.

That inquiry followed positive dope tests on two horses beaten at short odds.

The difference this time is that allegations centre on money wagered with online betting exchanges, where punters can back (to win) but also 'lay' (to lose) a horse.

Computerised records and documents should make it easier to provide a paper trail for investigators to study.

Q. Are other inquiries pending?

A. Yes. Fallon is awaiting a Jockey Club hearing into allegations by the News of the World that he brought racing into disrepute, which the rider denies.

Profile: Kieren Fallon

No date has been set for the hearing, which followed a ride aboard Ballinger Ridge at Lingfield where Fallon was beaten by a short head after being well clear inside the final furlong.

There are a host of other Jockey Club cases, including that of Sean Fox, who is due to appear before the Jockey Club disciplinary panel on 10 September to appeal against a 21-day ban for his ride on Ice Saint at Fontwell in March.

Local stewards found him guilty of intentionally stepping off the horse at the Sussex track. Television footage of the incident was shown around the world.

Q. What is all this doing to the image of racing?

A. The latest arrests have undermined the sport's integrity, according to betting guru John McCririck.

"We have the position with athletics and with swimming that whenever a record is broken, people think what drugs are they on?" he said.

"That's what you think of straight away, rather than what a fantastic achievement.

"People will be asking, was that race crooked and was that horse trying?

"That has been the cry down the centuries about horseracing, but now it has been brought into these lurid headlines once again."

Q. So how can races be fixed?

A. Richard Griffiths, author of Racing in the Dock, said doping horses has been a problem down the years, but internet betting exchanges posed a new risk.

"Although it is an incredibly successful phenomenon, allowing punters to bet against each other has definitely added a new layer of corruption possibilities," he said.

"If you are a trainer, owner or jockey, or anyone with inside information, you can profit from knowing a horse is not going to win by going on one of these exchanges and laying the horse to lose.

"There are many ways of knowing a horse is not going to win, for example you might know that a horse is injured or unfit."

Q. Can racing recover?

A. The headlines make uncomfortable reading. "Racing in the mire" screamed The Sun's front page, while the Daily Star said: "This isn't a mere shadow or a dark cloud hanging over the sport, it is the equivalent of a nuclear storm."

But the Jockey Club is determined to stamp out corruption, even if it means negative publicity for the sport.

And despite the headlines, punters did not desert the sport when previous race-fixing claims were made.

Bookmakers continue to report record turnover and crowds at Britain's racecourses are on the up.

Whether the trend continues remains to be seen.