The sport was rocked by the Kenyon Confronts programme, entitled "They stop horses, don't they?" and screened on BBC One on Tuesday evening.

Kenyon used covert footage to show three trainers claiming that horses could be prevented from winning certain races in order to lower handicaps.

Posing as a wealthy gambler, Kenyon purchased hurdler Seattle Alley for �4,000 from trainer David Wintle, who was shown to claim that the horse would not run well.

Immediately after the show went out the Jockey Club - racing's governing body - spoke to BBC Radio Five Live.

Director of regulation Malcolm Wallace said: "It would be fair to say we are concerned about it.

"Clearly it would seem that the programme makers are pretty keen to portray in a less than favourable light and obviously as the regulators of racing that would concern us.

"We'll have a sit down and a long, hard think about it and if there is a perception that the rules of racing have been breached then clearly we will have to do something about it."

During the programme Kenyon said that for certain trainers, "the further down the field the horse comes the better. While they are making money out of it, the losers are you and I, the betting public."

In the light of these claims racing journalist John McCririck called on the Jockey Club to hold a disciplinary inquiry.

"They keep on saying - and rightly so - that they cannot get the evidence," said McCririck.

"It is so hard to get. (Kenyon Confronts producer) Paul Woolwich will tell you how hard it was for his programme with all the resources of the BBC. (But now) they have given the Jockey Club evidence."

Yet it might prove difficult for the Jockey Club to punish those trainers highlighted in the programme.

BBC Sport's racing correspondent Cornelius Lysaght said that, whilst the programme was undoubtedly bad for the sport's image, no actual racing rules were broken.

"Reporter Paul Kenyon, the eponymous host of the programme, bought a racehorse in training at David Wintle's stables in the Cotswolds," Lysaght recalled.

"In covert interviews recorded with Wintle and two other trainers, Ferdy Murphy and Jamie Osborne, he was told about how horses could be beaten in their races and therefore be set up for future gambles, using tactics including running on unsuitable going and over an inappropriate distance.

"Kenyon calls this "cheating and fixing" but the Jockey Club maintains that the programme does not show any rules of racing being broken.

"Technically speaking what is described is not against the rules, but clearly it looked very bad and will have damaged the reputation of the sport with punters."

The Jockey Club's Wallace added: "Every time a horse shows improved form to win a race without having previously been placed, under an instruction known as H19, a review of the horse's previous runs is automatically triggered."

More than 370 enquiries had been started since 1988, with only two referrals to the Jockey Club's disciplinary committee, of which one was found to have broken the rules.

"Let there be no misunderstanding, if a horse is ridden with the intent of deceiving the public about its true ability to achieve the best possible placing in a particular race, an enquiry will be held and action taken against the jockey and trainer," Wallace said.