Jockey Club ban connections from laying on Betting Exchanges

Rules banning owners, trainers and stable staff from laying their horses to lose on betting exchanges were confirmed by the Jockey Club on Monday.

The new measures will come into effect on September 1.

From September it will be an offence for a trainer to lay any horse under his care to lose a race, the same will apply to stable staff employed by the trainer.

It will also be a breach of the Rules for an owner to lay any horse they own to lose.

Julian Richmond-Watson, senior steward of the Jockey Club, said: 'When the findings of our Integrity Review Committee were published in February it was recommended that rules be introduced to make it an offence for trainers to lay their own horses to lose.

'In following up this recommendation we also considered the situation regarding stable staff and owners.

'Having considered the matter carefully and consulted with the relevant associations and betting exchange firms, we believe racing´s integrity and the public´s confidence in the sport would be best served by a clearly defined ban on owners, trainers and stable staff laying horses in which they have an interest.'

Since June several betting exchange firms have signed with the Jockey Club a Memorandum of Understanding which gives the sport´s regulatory body access to betting information on races the subject of concern.

However, Irish-based exchange firm Betdaq have not signed the Memorandum of Understanding and their spokesman Rob Hartnett said: 'The Jockey Club are quite right to act on questions of integrity, and within their rights to place restrictions on licensed persons.

'I am concerned however that today´s announcement on owners, together with the Memorandum of Understanding over personal information, have been rushed out ahead of time, and are of less benefit than might otherwise be the case.

'The battle against unscrupulous persons will be won through co-operation, and an understanding of what constitutes unusual betting patterns.

'Betdaq has had constructive discussions with John Elsey of the Jockey Club over the monitoring and supply of these patterns and will continue to assist him and his team in this regard.

'Recent cases highlighted in the Racing Post highlight the need for this understanding and co-operation. If true, the cases in question should have been alerted to the Jockey Club in a timely fashion, as they would have been had they taken place on Betdaq.

'The pushing back of exact definitions and policing methods on the question of owners begs the question of why today´s announcement was necessary in the first place.

'The debate which should be had will now be carried out through the media as opposed to through reasoned argument, and that is disappointing.

'Betdaq calls again for the Jockey Club to sit down with the betting industry as a whole to investigate ways in which doubts over the integrity of the sport can be addressed, and to act once there are solutions, as opposed to when another incident provokes a hasty reaction.'