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Investigators free suspected corrupt jockeys on bail

Champion jockey Kieren Fallon was set to return to the racecourse yesterday, a day after being freed on bail by British police investigating allegations of widespread corruption and race fixing.

Fallon was released on bail late Wednesday after being quizzed for 12 hours by detectives probing the suspected fixing of more than 80 horse races over the past two years.

Another 15 people, including jockeys Darren Williams and Fergal Lynch as well as trainer Karl Burke, were also arrested in raids on 19 addresses around the country.

All those arrested had now been given bail and would return to a police station in London two months from now, City of London Police, the force leading the investigation, said.

Innocence

Fallon's lawyer proclaimed his client's innocence on Wednesday.

"The circumstances that relate to Kieren Fallon's arrest involve an individual who he has met on one occasion and whose name he did not even know at the time the meeting happened," Christopher Stewart-Moore said in a statement.

The individual referred to is Miles Rodgers, a former director of a racehorse owners' syndicate who was barred from racecourses for two years in March after being found to have placed two substantial bets on two of his syndicate's horses to lose.

According to Britain's domestic Press Association news agency, the police investigation began after officers were given records of seemingly irregular betting provided by Betfair, a leading Internet-based bookmaker.

Betfair's system allows users to, as the terminology has it, "lay" a horse, meaning they effectively act as an individual bookmaker and take bets from other Web-based gamblers.

This allows people to make money if a heavily-backed horse fails to win, meaning a crooked jockey could theoretically be paid to deliberately lose.
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