is it a secret?

Sam certainly was handed his last few games, but certainly was a champ and Shannon Grant fits into the champion category by virtue of playing 300+
As for that, that applies to all of them, as that is the point...

His stats hold up against any.  17.3 HO per game, 12 diposals, .6 goals per game...  No modern day elite athletic ruckman, but they weren't in those days.

Each to their own.

Paul williams in charge of BC3 books?

Any day now Adam Sangster is going to come out and defend himself from the insinuation that he's thoroughly dodgy.

LEADING trainer David Hayes knows how the victims of Bill Vlahos' punting club "The Edge" would be feeling.

Hayes was stung by con man Michael Bastion in Hong Kong.

Hayes, an Australian Hall Of Fame member, was the dominant trainer in Hong Kong when Bastion, a flamboyant party boy, horse trader and punter, was exposed for perpetrating a $35 million fraud, of which $25 million was never recovered.

Bastion, 38, plunged to his death from the roof of a Hong Kong hotel in 2000 while Hayes waited in the lobby for him for a dinner appointment.

Hayes lost a reported $1.3 million and had to stay in Hong Kong for several more years to recoup it before returning home to buy the family farm, Lindsay Park, in South Australia.

"The Bastion experience taught me that if it is too good to be true, it normally is," Hayes said.

Now based at Euroa and again a force in Australian racing, Hayes said investors "have to move on" from such setbacks.

"There is nothing you can do," he said.

"It is really unfortunate for the investors. But there has been insider trading in the stock market for years and the stock market is still going. Racing must be the same.

"This is an isolated incident. In fact, it is unique because, from what I can gather, the whole thing didn't exist.

"I don't think people can blame the racing industry. I think racing is very well policed. But this is a betting syndicate and racing has no controls over that.

" This is a police matter and a matter for the courts."

Breeder Rick Jamieson with Bill Vlahos at the Sydney yearling sales at Easter.Source: DailyTelegraph

Hayes said it would be impossible to regulate all betting syndicates run in pubs, clubs and offices.

"This is a one-off and it affects a lot of people but at the end of the day they need to move on and learn the lesson that if it is too good to be true, it normally is. I did."

The Bastion con was regarded as "sex, drugs, horse­racing and bank accounts in the British Virgin Islands" and has a similar theme to the $194 million Vlahos punting club.

In the six years before his death, Bastion's "personal expenditure" totalled $7.1 million.

His average American Express bill was $50,000 a month. He flew first class. And when the liquidator obtained Bastion's records from the high-rollers' room in Melbourne's Crown Casino, it was found he had spent $750,000 there in 12 months.

He had bought 102 racehorses for $12 million in the four years before his death.

He was a director or shareholder of 23 companies in Australia, Hong Kong, New Zealand, the British Virgin Islands and Vanuatu.

When he set up investments offering huge returns, he was inundated.

Bastion told his investors he could give them a return of 50 per cent.

The reality was that it was a giant Ponzi scheme.

bizarre isn't it Spy

in the lobby ffs

i suppose they would have him on the internal hotel cctv

no point saying you were anywhere else i guess

and probably just checking how the investment was going ... maybe to add another quarter mill to the pot or something   

Swan diving from HK high rises unfortunately is a regular occurrence.

Known as Freestyle or Pike, meaning freestyle(of their own free will) or Pike(planned/pushed)

In the Lobby ?,hmmm, questionable.

Most of the cases are workers going ballistic or children crawling outside,very few Horse people although he wasn't the first and prob won't be the last.

Bastion did have a party trick that he preformed on a regular basis, instead of walking the long way around from his living room to his bedroom he would leap from lounge room balcony to the bedroom balcony. Maybe running late for the appointment with Hayes he decided the short cut and slipped or maybe an ankle tap just before take off.

RIP Jimmy

Will kick the story off again though - e.g.

Bruce Clark ‏@snowyclark 7m

Putting aside the tragic equine aspect to the truly sad story of "Jimmy" time for questions - maybe starting with "was he insured for $7m?"

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Black Caviar's $5 million brother, known as Jimmy, has lost his battle with laminitis. Source: Supplied

DEVASTATED owners of Black Caviar's half-brother Jimmy fear losing their money as well as the horse after the $5 million colt was put down in the latest twist in the "Dollar Bill" Vlahos scandal.

The most expensive colt sold at auction in Australia was never able to race after life-threatening complications of laminitis, a hoof complaint developed after treatment for a mysterious spider bite.

Sorrow turned to anger on Sunday night when investors in Bill Vlahos's BC3 Thoroughbreds realised they might have to pursue bloodstock agents Inglis for their share of a $5 million ­insurance payout.

One Goulburn Valley family syndicate paid $70,000 in insurance premiums above the $250,000 stake they put up for a 5 per cent share in the doomed colt at the Sydney Yearling Sales last Easter.

Graeme Wood, of Mooroopna, said: "Those of us who paid for the horse and paid for the insurance policy are morally ­entitled to our share of the insurance payout."

But Mr Wood admitted he and other owners were not sure of their legal position until they contacted Inglis and liquidators of BC3 Thoroughbreds.

Would-be owners all over Australia have paid similar amounts, believing they would jointly own Jimmy, only to discover this month that the colt was not paid for, not registered and their names were not on any papers.

Former BC3 Thoroughbreds chief Craig Cameron confirmed yesterday that the insurance policy - held by Inglis - had been paid up but he did not know who was entitled to claim on it.

The blue-blooded colt's death follows a month of turmoil in one of racing's greatest scandals since the 1980s Fine Cotton ring-in.

News last month that Jimmy had been bit by a spider led to the chain of events that uncovered the $200 million "punters club" that mystery man Bill Vlahos set up to subsidise BC3 Thoroughbreds.

Mr Cameron dismissed any suggestions of foul play over the bite, saying staff were devastated by the loss of a horse they had loved.

"I don't think it's possible anyone could have harmed this horse without any one of us knowing. He was under constant supervision,'' Mr Cameron said.

"I've heard all the rumour and speculation and it hurts. It's very difficult to accept.''

Melbourne University Veterinary Hospital's Dr Chris Whitton, in consultation with the vet from the insurance company covering the colt, decided to euthanise him after believing there was no more to be done to prevent intolerable pain.

Mr Vlahos has gone into hiding since he was allegedly bashed and his utility torched at BC3's training property at Connewarre near Geelong three weeks ago.

Staff told police they believed Mr Vlahos's injuries were self-inflicted and that fuel used to ignite the car came from the property.

Mr Vlahos claimed he could not produce emails and spreadsheets relating to his collapsed punting club "The Edge" because they were stored on a laptop destroyed in the fire .

He told a Sydney court hearing that "$194 million", supposedly held in a Westpac bank account, vanished with an associate called "Daniel Maxwell" in Dubai.

But when a Herald Sun reporter traced the Dubai address he gave, the mysterious Maxwell had never been heard of there .

Mr Cameron said those staff still working on the Connewarre property were distressed that Jimmy had been put down.

"Nearly everyone there was in tears when they got the news," he said.

Disappointed owner Rob McIldowie said that, like the others in his position, he was worried about getting the insurance money. But he stressed that the horse had the best veterinary care "from day one".

The Wood family of Mooroopna have lost

money through Mr Vlahos but are hoping their share of Jimmy's big sister Belle Couture will restore their battered fortunes.

The $2.5 million filly failed by a short half head in her race debut at Bendigo last week.

surely there must be some oversight there somewhere - fair enough the punters club wasn't monitored but selling shares in horses should be

BC3 must have been breaking plenty of rules

question is - does the industry have the balls to fix it? my guess no as the breeders would lose out too much if the rules change and they run the show

all part of the wonderful circus that's racing Thebas

was funny on AM this morning they were talking about Jimmy and call Vlahos a "Melbourne racing identity" at least the Sydney ones are "colourful"