A jockey has been given a 10-year ban for “as blatant an example of a non-trier as one could get” after a lengthy enquiry.
Adam Carter’s licence was revoked until 18 October 2027 by the British Horseracing Authority’s (BHA) disciplinary panel for his part in “corrupt activities” at Southwell on 4 June 2014.
Before the start of the race, the BHA received a report from Betfair of suspicious betting patterns.
This, combined with the “remarkably eye-catching ride” Mr Carter gave the horse, Blazeofenchantment, led to a stewards’ enquiry, which concluded that Mr Carter had deliberately failed to ride the horse on his merits and referred the matter the the BHA’s head office.
Mr Carter was found by the panel to have deliberately not ridden the horse on his merits in the knowledge that bets had been placed for him to lose.
The panel found he passed inside information to Paul Bradley, and through him to Peter Bennett, for betting purposes.
“The panel could find no mitigating features of Mr Carter’s behaviour,” said a statement from the BHA’s disciplinary panel.
“Though relatively young and still a claimer, he had considerable experience as a jockey.
“While it was not possible to say on the evidence available who might have caused or required him to stop the horse, there was no hint that he was under pressure from an unidentified source to do this.
“There were two aggravating aspects of his conduct. Firstly, there was the extraordinary series of changes of story that he has given over the years.”
These included contradictory accounts and withdrawal of statements over the riding of the horse.
The statement from the panel adds: “Secondly, there was the fact that he chose to initiate a route to profit (or perhaps additional profit) from his intended stopping ride by passing information to Mr Bradley that led in turn to Mr Bennett’s lay betting.”
Mr Bradley, a former jockey who works for Tim Easterby, admitted his rule breaches five days before the hearing and was disqualified for two years and six months from 19 October 2017.
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This means he cannot set foot on any licensed premises or have any dealings with licensed personnel in relation to horseracing.
Mr Bennett has been excluded from any BHA-licensed premises and cannot apply to have this lifted until 19 October 2021 at the earliest.
The panel took into consideration his interview with inspectors and decided not to exclude Mr Bennett indefinitely.
The panel has also added the caveat that if he chooses to reapply for admission, he should pay £2,000 to a “suitable racing charity” to represent the profit he made on his “corruptly inspired betting”.
The panel made its decision in August, but chose not impose penalties until it had had enough time to consider written submissions.
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