Charles Byrnes suspended.

Maybe it happened before they got to the track?

thats what i mean,it looks worse for the trainer because if it had happened at the course its very likely somebody would have seen somebody or something

Yep the matter of a unknown person/gang operating to nobble a hoss and pull off a lay coup @ Tramore is quite laughable.
Leaving the hoss unattended is a nice get out of long term jail card if it was needed.

could someone please explain a limited liability company to me and a white label customer.tia

Limited liability company is whereby individuals are protecting there own personal assets from any losses within the company.

Wonder if it was a Ltd liability company in the Voler La Vedette case??

thanks geoff, i hadnt seen the other thread,i  would have thought it would be like penalty points. the placer of the bet would be responsible for the bet,it would be up to the ll company to divulge the individual. ie if you were not driving ir responsible unless you name who was driving at the time.

The horse ran 5 more times for Byrnes after the Galway run and three more times after the Tramore doping incident drifting every time  where were the stewards then

On its first run for Micky Hammond it was backed in the morning from 20/1 to 7/4.SP of 2/1 and ran like it did in Tramore.How come they was no stewards report that day for a fav that was pulled up?Were the betting records looked at?or is it only certain owners or trainers that are looked at?

To pick up a point that GAZO made, Where the hell were Betfair in this whole thing ? If the horse hadn't been tested,
would the layer be free to continue his nefarious activities. I believe so. I have had an account for 19 years and DO
NOT believe a fraction of the accusations on here to be true, but I find it hard to believe Betfair haven't noticed
some dodgy laying connected either to certain horses or stables. The problem is, if they continually pointed out illegal
activities ,then the whole Betfair model could be called into question .Every so often an independent body should be able to go
in and look at all activity in Horse Racing to ensure that all is well.

The white label bets have been banned from today according to a report I have read.

Dr Lynn Hill, said at the enquiry that the administration of ACP would have took place close to the time of the race. Have none of these so called experts never read Jamie Reid's book "Doped" about the doping gang in the 1960s that  broke into racing stables over night and doped horses. They wrapped the drugs in tin foil so that the juices in the horses stomach would break down the tin foil so that the drug went in to the horses system just before the race.

Good point blunder,also I doubt if BF chucked every dodgy looking player out they're wouldn't be a business left.

if it has been posted here already , apologies, but in yesterdays racing post it said .

buckley also identified an unnamed "individual known to be associated" with the account who was described as being "based in a distant part of the world and was said to be associated with match fixing in other sports"

at sedgefield , another byrnes runner on the card thosedaysaregone was also laid for substantial amounts and was pulled up after the saddle slipped

before sedgefield , viking hoard ran at galway in july 2018 and was also laid £55,000 to £12,000 , a sample was taken on that occasion and the committee presumed that "nothing adverse arose from subsequent analysis of those samples "

Betting exchanges breeding ground for this type of activity ! too easy to make money if your in the know ! Printing money .

Before anyone asks.......the latest from the RP on 'white labels':

Charles Byrnes case leaves a lasting smudge on so-called 'white labels'

Like the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, those looking for answers from the Viking Hoard case have reached something of a dead end, at least until trainer Charles Byrnes' appeal is heard.

Naturally, formal comment from the interested parties will not be forthcoming while the case is still active. The facts that have emerged, from the IHRB referrals committee's 4,300-word report and subsequent investigations by the Racing Post among others, are more than enough to ensure harsh light will again be shed on the affair as soon as that appeal has run its course.

The welfare element might be the single most shocking aspect. The opinion of those much more informed in these matters would almost suggest Viking Hoard was lucky to still be conscious as he stepped out on to the track, such were the levels of acepromazine (ACP) administered pre-race. Jockey Kevin Brouder had a lucky escape.

Purely where betting is concerned, there is much more to pick out from the Byzantine chain of transactions that led backwards from a bet that took up 50 per cent of the exchange market to an account traced to an individual "based in a distant part of the world and said to be associated with match fixing".

Crucially, there was no challenge to Dr Lynn Hillyer's assertion that the betting patterns and substance administered "were not coincidental". Or, put another way, the panel accepted that this €35,000 lay bet from some far-flung corner of the globe came from a source that knew Viking Hoard, standing in a stable in Tramore, would be got at.

At the time, it was possible to place lay bets through Betfair's 'white label' partners. These companies, which allow access to Betfair's markets from jurisdictions across the world, place bets on the exchange on the clients' behalf.

This is perhaps not quite as clandestine as it might first appear. Betfair have previously claimed that these companies are required to conduct the requisite 'know your customer' checks, and that the exchange can request access for the details of any account as it sees fit. It presumably did just that in the Viking Hoard case, which is how the IHRB panel ultimately ended up with the name of our would-be criminal mastermind.

Officially, the story ends there. Only it almost certainly does not. It has been established that the use of brokers, essentially shell accounts, can be employed and that going through more laissez-faire territories can reduce the chances of tracing back the source of funds. Basically, no longer would those with nefarious intentions be naive enough to lay using accounts in their own name, as Miles Rodgers did in Betfair's early days.

As in the IHRB report, it should be stressed there is no evidence to link any other individual, Byrnes included, with these betting patterns. It is simply to emphasise that if you accept Hillyer's assertion that the lay and the administration of ACP were linked events, then it is beyond the realms of plausibility the trail stops at the point at which investigators reached a brick wall. The list of suspects could run into the millions but probably would not include the person whose name is attached to the offending account.

The Viking Hoard affair will no doubt blacken racing's name. It does seem that some lessons have been learned, though. In the intervening two and a half years, it has been reported Tramore has installed some form of CCTV, albeit not at the level that satisfies the strictest security protocols. Meanwhile, Betfair have banned laying through their white-label partners. Whoever nobbled Viking Hoard will have to find a fresh method the next time they attempt to defraud punters.

Still, questions remain and a couple of the bigger ones lie at Betfair's door. The decision to restrict only lay bets through B2B partners stands as a monument in treating symptoms rather than cause. If doubts over transparency permeate these affiliate platforms, the problem does not go away by restricting just one of their two main operations.

Betfair have previously insisted that such partners are held to stringent standards of verification, both in their respective territories and as part of their contracts with Betfair. It is also understood that the platform that was used in the Viking Hoard case is no longer in partnership with Betfair.

It is evident checks need to be tighter still. In lighter-touch jurisdictions, Betfair may well be the main police of their own partners. Being subjected to deep suspicion right from inception has meant Betfair have a reputation as a diligent operator when it comes to integrity, but this is still not an ideal set of circumstances.

At last report, it was estimated that white label sites are responsible for less than one per cent of revenue at Flutter, the group of which Betfair now form a large part. That is not an insubstantial amount considering Flutter's overall revenues amounted to more than £2 billion in 2019, yet it may be small enough it is decided it is a liability the group could do without.

Here's hoping. Anything that makes what was inflicted on poor Viking Hoard, his jockey and his backers at Tramore less appealing to would-be fraudsters must be regarded as an unalloyed positive for racing.

What about the horses last run when it was backed from 20/1 to 2/1?Was he tested that day and was betting records looked at?

This has clearly been a long time coming. Far too long.

What he got 6 months for was leaving the horse unattained at Tramore and nothing else.I think he has a great chance of getting it overturn.

Look at the way he "runs" his horse year after year. Disgusting. It's not wanted in the game.

Thats not what he got 6 months for.I never had a problem with Charles.

cloone river

You posed a similar question earlier.

VIKING HOARD's last run was, again, at Sedgefield

However - It was (officially, at least) it's First run for New Trainer Micky Hammond - despite some thinking that it may still being trained by BYRNES - as it was backed from 20/1 to 7/4 in the Morning Markets.

Viking Hoard had run 4  times for a new Trainer, prior to the Sedgefield Debut for Hammond - But had NOT run for 10 months.

The New Trainer (after Byrnes) was R CURRAN - from Downpatrick  ...

- although - there is NO record of any SALE of the horse - either from BYRNES to CURRAN - or CURRAN to HAMMOND

In fact - VIKING HOARD is still listed as Owned by a Mrs Mary CURRAN.
--------------

After VIKING HOARD's WIN at Killarney in July 2018 - Charles BYRNES said ...

"He rode him closer to the pace today and he stays, and for a four-year-old it is unreal the way he stays.
He'll keep going and might go for a hurdle race at Galway. He's a very slow horse to work and I don't think he's fast enough to win on the flat as all he does is stay and he loves top of the ground. I bought him at Newmarket last year and couldn't get a buyer for him and he's for sale again now."  C Byrnes


VIKING HOARD was - rather remarkably, considering the usually more stringent and reactive Handicapping in Ireland - was only raised 11 pounds for that comfortable 15 lengths success at Killarney - something that I am still struggling to comprehend, having handicapped all UK and Irish Flat and Hurdle races for decades... especially as the Runner-Up remained on it's same rating...whilst the 3rd went up a further 4 lbs (on top of it's 6lb  penalty carried) for a previous over 8 lengths Win.

All that made VIKING HOARD something of 'a GIMMEE' at GALWAY ...

- Yet it DRIFTED - and we now know was confidently LAID -  and was PULLED UP...

Why was its last run not looked into 20/1 to 2/1 fav?
I wouldnt have had it fav for the Galway run.Winning over 2m4f and going back to 2 miles is never a good idea.
His run at Sedgefield was a very good run off 117 on 2 oct 2018.
What would you have put him up for his Killarney win onlooker?

Whilst I never had Viking Hoard down as morhing into a really useful Handicap Hurdler - and he looked as if he had to have Dry ground - I had kept a close eye on him - as I was of the opinion that there was some potential there, and he would eventually 'have his day' - as he was previously trained by an unproductive Trainer in the UK, that being Harry Dunlop.

More a case of what the Irish Handicapper did not give Viking Hoard for his Killarney win, as outlined - and especially as we are now aware that the 13 lengths runner-up subsequently Won off 4 lbs higher, and the 3rd has been beaten just a neck off 8 lbs higher... So the simplistic 15lbs for his 15 lengths success would not have been an over-reaction.

The Sedgefield race simply did not 'work out' whatsoever from a future Hurdling point of view - and  is a 'Red Herring' as the 117 is it's English Rating, which run at a level higher than Irish Jump Ratings.
In fact, I only have the horse running to an Irish equivalent of 98 (without Brouder's 7lb claim)

^  ...  'we are now aware that the 15 lengths runner-up' (at Killarney)

The Sedgefield run was its best run off 117 thats the mark he ran off.When you look at two of the horses that was in front of it.Mixboy and Bench break.

Every so often an independent body should be able to go
in and look at all activity in Horse Racing to ensure that all is well.

the more times you meet the big boys for canapés and hookers at the belfry, the less independent you become ..

cloone - As I outlined - the 117 mark at Sedgefield is an English Handicap mark - it equates to around a 109 Irish Handicap rating ... Believe Me.

I beg to differ on your appraisal of the Sedgefield race

Beach Boy eventually won a small 6-runner race - 9 outings, and almost a year, later - off 9 lbs LESS than at Sedgefield.

Mix Boy subsequently Won another Jumps race 5 outings later - But it was a CHASE ... and Mixboy is currently rated 11 lbs better over FENCES than Hurdles.

The runner-up was beaten 41 lengths and 31 lengths on it's next 2 Hurdle outings - followed by defeats of 21, 16, 28 and 18 lengths in it's next 4 Jumps races

How can - "The Sedgefield" - be, "its best run" ? - when ...

Viking Hoard, therefore,  ran to nowhere near the  117 rating, anyway .... more like an English  107, at best - That would equate to an IRISH Rating of around 99.

As I have already explained ...

The Sedgefield race  is a 'Red Herring' as the 117 is it's English Rating, which run at a level higher than Irish Jump Ratings.

Every so often an independent body should be able to go
in and look at all activity in Horse Racing to ensure that all is well.

the more times you open your big boys a/c and see the balance has gone up another 5k, the less independent you become ..

And what did the horses in the killarney race do after that onlooker?So when Viking Hoard ran in Sedgefield did he have to run off 117 or not?Beach Break was after winning 3 races in a row before he ran at Sedgefield and won two more races after that.Mixboy won 3 races after that is on 133 over hurdles and 144 over fences.

I’ve always struggled with the logic of Premium Charge, it’s practically indefensible.
When the exchanges looked for acceptance they said integrity would be at the heart of laying horses as efficiency was a metric to determine cheats.

Then they invented PC with a scaled higher rate calculation where the more efficient a user the greater the cut taken by betfair.
That has to be a conflict of interest.

I thought after the first lockdown there would be many gambles landed, once racing started again..(they've got bills to pay)..seems money hasn't just talked, its shouted!  Where there's money, there's corruption!  The whole game is rife, as too is the stock market.  It's in the media's interests to admit that the game is clean but anyone with a half a brain knows differently.  If you're not inside, you're outside!

An interesting debate between onlooker and cloone river....the forum could do with more of these sort of exchanges

From today's (Friday's) RP, it seems the BHA notified the IHRB of the Tramore lay.

From which we can infer that the BHA and Betfair arrangement of a few years ago whereby Betfair notifies the BHA, and that there is no equivalent arrangement between Betfair and the IHRB. Does that sound right?

We might also infer that the BHA and IHRB were by this time already suspicious about this horse.

I would infer that the British authorities were suspicious about the horse, while the Irish ones weren't.

basically an insult to peoples intelligence to think theres laying on a industrial scale going on in byrnes yard without his knowledge,
if you ask everyone in racing to name a yard where industrial laying was going on without the trainers knowledge byrnes would be last on everyone list
its like chosing an old dog to show your newest trick

not all good news for byrnes he,ll have to to look forward to ruk,atr,itv, kissing his arris and interviewing him 24/7 like karl burke

@1st time poster -- that is the question, isn't it?

Was it only Viking Hoard or were there also lays of other horses in CB's barn?

Were the same accounts (or the same white label "exchanges") making similar sized lays on other yards in Ireland (or in Britain come to that)?

Follow the money.

imagine if they picked the wrong day and give a 100 times the normal stopper dose to a hag byrnes had filled with magic carrots,his head might have blew off in paddock, ,
or they used 100 times more just in case it was a byrnes jigger and a train wouldnt normally stop it

What interests me far more - are the GALWAY and SEDGEFIELD 'runs' ... as we know that the TRAMORE scenario was a Doping absolute.

But the SEDGEFIELD run is far more unquantifiable - given that we now know that the horse was Tested, and was Negative...

Yet VIKING HOARD was confidently LAID to potentially,  Lose £30,000 at SEDGEFIELD.

HOW DOES THAT WORK ?

Nobody has mentioned the JOCKEY in all this - the same Jockey who rode the horse in ALL 3 Races when it was heavily LAID.

We found out last season that he is not 'Heaven's little Angel' ...
--------
 
Irish racing’s regulatory body has opened an investigation into a breach of the coronavirus raceday protocols by jump jockey KEVIN BROUDER at Galway on Monday.

Brouder has admitted to having wrongfully gained an admission wrist-band for a passenger travelling with him.

In an enquiry at Galway, Horse Racing Ireland’s Covid-19 officer reported that Brouder had carried out correct screening procedures before gaining admission to the racecourse.

However the jockey quickly returned to the entrance area “claiming to have lost his wrist band and seeking a replacement band which he was given by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board security officer.”

HRI’s Frank Lannon said that at a later stage a passenger was observed in Brouder’s car within the enclosures and in possession of a wrist band.

The passenger confirmed she had not received health screening clearance for the fixture.

The IHRB’s security officer, Declan Buckley, told the enquiry he had spoken with Brouder who admitted he had “wrongfully” claimed an admission wrist band for his passenger and had brought her into the enclosure area.

Brouder admitted what he had done to the stewards on Monday and confirmed he was in possession of two wrist bands, neither of which was mislaid.

The matter has been referred to the IHRB’s chief executive Denis Egan for further investigation.
------------

A little indiscretion .... or a Trait?

kissing his arris and interviewing him 24/7 like karl burke

--------------------------

Doesn't normally do many if any interviews these days,doubt he'll be doing it much going forward.

The whole episode is rancid from top to bottom and whoever administered the dose could and should be facing criminal charges.

I wonder will the affair be referred to the Gardai? (Irish Police)

Dermot Browne's ban ends next year.

Hi onlooker.Was they a stewards report for its run at Sedgefield on 2 oct 2018?nearly certain they was but cant see it.
If they is unusual betting patterns before a race like at Tramore do the stewards have the power to withdraw the horse in question?
If people are defrauded then the Gardai  should be involved.

Cloone River,also from a danger to life angle on the rider as the horse could have collapsed at any stage of the race causing injury to him.

cloone - There was NO Sedgefield Stewards Report

- or - as the Stewards put it .....

Race 4 - 3:35pm.

THE bet365 HANDICAP HURDLE RACE (CLASS 3)

Nothing to report

https://media.britishhorseracing.com/pdf/stewardsreport/?fixtureId=1452&year=2018
------------

Charles BYRNES did have ANOTHER Runner on the Card ... a 5/4 FAV -  that was 'Unlucky'

Pulled Up  Thosedaysaregone  (IRE) 5/4F   Kevin Brouder 7   C Byrnes

In touch, saddle slipped after 4 out and rider lost irons, pulled up after 3 out (jockey said saddle slipped approaching the bend out of the back straight causing him to lose his irons therefore jockey pulled up) (op 11/10 tchd 11/8)

Owner:    Byrnes Bloodstock Limited

Don't make me Laugh   


TRAMORE is looking after itself - as Doping is proven  -   BUT ....

I have still NOT taken my eye off BOTH BYRNES and JOCKEY BROUDER in all these   races.

I watched that race a few days ago ^ he kept looking down, was laughable.

I think they was a report up on that Sedgefield race a couple of days ago when I was looking at the case.Maybe it was taking down for some reason?
They was another Irish trainer that had to explain how his horses was going to run before the race when they ran in England.

Well -   That is how it appears on the BHA site - as this  Link, that I posted

https://media.britishhorseracing.com/pdf/stewardsreport/?fixtureId=1452&year=2018

Reports on Races - 1, 2, 5 and 6
-----------------

Yes - That - 'how is your horse going to run?' - is something they tried for a few weeks around a year ago ...
Seemed to die a death though.

They is probably a good reason why questions are asked.

But the SEDGEFIELD run is far more unquantifiable - given that we now know that the horse was Tested, and was Negative...

maybe they need a better test .. Lance Armstrong stayed one step ahead of the testers for over 10 years

he has appealed against the decision.

Would the HRI have the same info from bookmakers including the exchanges that the BHA gets? That is surely the key as any horse that takes out such a big lay from one source has to be highly suspect.

i would have thought so sageform as they all use irish racing to trade on.

No. Betfair informed the BHA (under a longstanding arrangement) and the BHA informed the IHRB.

thanks ramruna

In today's Irish Field it says that the IHRB appointed the BHA as a betting monitor from Feb 2020 , I'm not sure if they pay a fee for same. it enables them to see exchange bets line by line and if the BHA monitoring team see anything untoward it is brought to the attention stewards immediately .

https://community.betfair.com/irish_sports/go/thread/view/94110/29796683/the-retirement-of-tom-doyle?post_id=529601213#529601213

A blast from the past that some people might not have seen.This was around the time of the famous Solwhit race in the fog @ Fairyhouse

https://community.betfair.com/horse_racing/go/thread/view/94102/29793839/tom-doyle-hangs-up-the-saddle-for-final-time?post_id=529620053#529620053

Another one.

The more you read these the more it gets you thinking Punchestown , doesn't show the man in a good light now does it...

Instead of laying the horse that can't win, surely they could win more by backing all the other horses because of more liquidity and less scrutiny.

Or perhaps they do both as the winning of £3k hardly seems worthwhile considering the risks.

The more you read these the more it gets you thinking Punchestown , doesn't show the man in a good light now does it...

-----------------------

Definitely not,his post race comment after Solwhit's victory in that race were unbelievably sharp.

3K not a bad return Brian if you are at it a few times a month Brian, which without any paper trail is highly

likely imo.

Solwhit was being aimed at the old Ladbroke at Leopartowns that january off 127 he would have been some cert.
He was turned over at 1/3 on his next run in a 3 runner race at thurles with Davy in the saddle.
Charles won that same race this year that Solwhit won.May be a horse to keep the right side off.It was foggy that day as well.
Maybe Charles horse like the fog?

Punchestown some incredible posters on the Irish Forum back then . Their racing knowledge was something else .Brilliant days for a sadly now dead forum..

has anybody asked betfair for the paper trail that was promised when they allowed people to lay horses ?

workrider,it's a terrible shame.Any word from the Wildman?

The subject dealt with in a very quick mention on ITV racing today,showed a clip from Kevin Blake this morning.

Presumably they felt they covered it enough this morning but the real audience is the afternoon watching public.

No sadly Punchestown, I have his phone number but never rang it after speaking to him the last time as a family story was unfolding for him , I never bothered ringing him again, a brilliant man years ahead of his time and spoke the truth which didn't go down well with some...

Yet VIKING HOARD was confidently LAID to potentially,  Lose £30,000 at SEDGEFIELD.

onlooker , annoyingly in the RP today, the writer says that this figure represented 71% of the lay market on betfair , and that the 55k euro at galway represented 50% of the lay market

maybe they should have clarified that is was 71% and 50% of lays on the horse and not the total market lay figure as it gives a bad impression

unless betfair have calculated knowing all lay bets compared to back bets

Bow  that your raise the possible anomaly ...

Without having the Market figures for each horse -  and also the Market Total - available to us ...

Then I concur that the statement could potentially be interpreted in at least 2, if not 3, differing ways.

A good piece by David Walsh in today's Sunday Times:

Case of doped horse leaves Irish racing facing some difficult questions

On December 7, 2014, 13 horses went to the start of the Weatherbys Ireland GSB Chase at Punchestown. After the race, the stewards were not happy with the running of second favourite Foxrock, who came in third, believing the jockey Adrian Heskin had made insufficient effort.

They interviewed Heskin and Foxrock’s trainer Ted Walsh, and had the official veterinary officer, Terry Smith, examine the horse. Smith noticed Foxrock had lost his two front shoes and although he scribbled, “Unusual? not taken off!?” on a notepad, he presumed they had been lost during the race. Crucially, this supported Heskin’s view that something was not right with Foxrock and explained his tender handling of the gelding. Trainer and jockey were cleared of wrongdoing.

Ireland being Ireland, people talked. Rumours circulated and one of the stewards from that day at Punchestown subsequently rewatched a video of the race and footage of the horses in the winner’s enclosure afterwards. There was a shot of Foxrock in which his two front shoes were glinting in the winter sun, after he had run his race.

Unusual as it would have been for the horse to lose two shoes in the race, that had not happened. Those two shoes had gone missing at some point after he returned to the parade ring and before he was examined by Smith. The stewards estimated the total time at seven minutes.

The stewards reopened the case. They accused Ted Walsh of removing or securing the removal of the front shoes from Foxrock “once he was alerted to the stewards’ enquiry into the running and riding of the horse”, and of having “concealed from the Turf Club and misled [its] officers and stewards as to the true circumstances in which the shoes were removed”.

Walsh has long been a successful trainer and achieved his greatest success when Papillon, ridden by his son Ruby, won the 2000 Grand National. Through his TV work with RTE, he has long been Ireland’s most recognisable racing commentator.

On April 18, 2015, four months after the race, the case was reconsidered at the offices of the Turf Club at the Curragh in County Kildare. Nine hours were devoted to taking evidence. Expert witnesses on behalf of the Turf Club talked of the improbability of a horse losing two shoes in the minutes walking from the parade ring to the racecourse stables and then on to the veterinary yard.

Witnesses for the defence, including the highly respected trainers Aidan O’Brien and Willie Mullins, challenged that view. O’Brien said he’d seen horses lose two shoes in similar circumstances “umpteen times” while Mullins insisted a horse could lose two shoes post-race but that it may happen only “one in a hundred times”.

Though they had aggressively pursued this case against one of the biggest names in racing, the authorities still lost. Ted Walsh was cleared of any wrongdoing. It was a major defeat for the Turf Club. Like every other track in Ireland at that time, Punchestown did not have CCTV cameras at its stables, which would have assisted the parties in getting to the bottom of the matter as to how the horse had lost its shoes. One might have thought that the Turf Club would since have taken action to rectify this.

In 2018 the Irish Turf Club became the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB). That was the year trainer Charles Byrnes and his son Cathal took Viking Hoard to Tramore races. That October day they drove from their County Limerick yard to the Waterford track. They got there in the early afternoon, lodged their horse at the course stables, went for a bite to eat and waited for the race.

Second favourite that morning, Viking Hoard drifted from 4-1 to double those odds. For a horse with decent form, he ran terribly. Five strides after the start, Kevin Brouder used his whip to bustle his horse into action. The jockey kept pushing but the horse could not get up to speed.

They lost touch before halfway and soon the jockey slowed the horse to a walk and took both of them out of their misery. It is customary in Ireland to drug-test the winner of every race but on this occasion, the authorities decided to test Viking Hoard. He tested positive for Acepromazine, a sedative commonly known as ACP, the sample containing one hundred times more than the permitted limit for the drug. The investigation would run for 14 months. The central questions were how the drug got into the horse’s system and who, if anyone, benefited from it not being able to perform.

Information from Betfair, the betting exchange, indicated that someone knew Viking Hoard would not win. One layer made €3,200 (about £2,850) by betting €34,889 that it would lose. Betting patterns for Viking Hoard’s two previous runs at Galway and Sedgefield revealed that the horse was backed to lose in both, €85,279 invested for a €24,000 profit. The IHRB’s chief veterinary officer, Lynn Hillyer, concluded that Viking Hoard had been “nobbled” at Tramore — drugged to lose.

In his evidence, the trainer Byrnes said he had no idea who had got at his horse. He admitted he and his son had left the horse unattended for 20 to 25 minutes in the two hours before the race at Tramore. Whoever had administered the sedative must have done so at this time.

Without CCTV cameras at the stables in Tramore there was no way of checking what third parties had entered Viking Hoard’s box that day. Four years after the lack of CCTV cameras had had an impact on the investigation into Foxrock’s two missing shoes, the same issue in this case would affect the investigation.

The top line on the IHRB website reads: “Protecting the Integrity of Irish Horseracing.” There are 26 racecourses in Ireland and seven years after the Foxrock case, the only track with CCTV cameras at its stables is Leopardstown. The redevelopment of the Curragh cost €81.2 million, €36 million of which came from the taxpayer, and still the €20,000 necessary to install CCTV at its stables was not spent. In the UK, every racecourse is obliged to have CCTV surveillance.

Not only was the IHRB unable to discover who doped Viking Hoard, it was not able to name the layer who gambled €34,889 on the horse losing. It is believed the bet was made in the name of a company in Curacao, a small Caribbean island. Betting investigators believe the individual behind the company has been previously involved in suspicious betting on cricket. There is, however, nothing that links this individual to the connections of Viking Hoard.

Byrnes was given a six-month suspension for leaving his horse unattended in the lead-up to the race. He admitted this while saying that it is not uncommon for horses to be left unattended at racecourse stables. He is appealing against his ban.

Soon, the IHRB’s Referrals Committee will deal with a case arising from the running of the Crowne Plaza Race And Stay Claiming Race at Dundalk last March. Two horses trained by Denis Hogan dominated the betting, Yuften and Tony The Gent. On their official ratings, Yuften was 17lb superior to his stablemate, but the money came before the race for Tony The Gent, who went off favourite.

The gamble succeeded as Tony The Gent beat Yuften. Concerned by Joe Doyle’s riding of Yuften, the Dundalk stewards interviewed both the jockey and trainer and passed the case to the Referrals Committee. A week or so before that Dundalk race the IHRB had done a deal with the British Horseracing Authority that allowed the Irish regulatory body to benefit from the BHA’s better access to betting patterns.

Soon, the IHRB will publish its findings in the Yuften/Tony The Gent case. While all this is going on, the IHRB has signed up to an agreement that gives stud farms a 24-hour advance warning of “unannounced” inspections and has yet to implement a series of new protocols agreed with the Department of Agriculture. In the past, the department was a key player in protecting welfare and integrity in horseracing.

Leading trainer Jim Bolger believes doping is a problem in Irish racing. Many agree with Bolger, though they are reluctant to say so publicly. There is also a belief in Irish racing, held by many in a position to know, that within the past five years a favourite for one of the handicaps at the Cheltenham Festival was stopped.

No sedative was necessary. Just a jockey doing as he was told.

Towards the end of the article, David Walsh refers to speculation that within the last 5 years a favourite for a Cheltenham Festival handicap was "stopped".

I wonder which horse he can be referring to? Those with inquiring minds have 50 odd races to study to see if they can come up with likely candidates.  A good number can be quickly eliminated if they were won by the favourite or if the losing favourite was trained by the likes of Mullins, Elliott or Henderson who presumably wouldn't countenance one of their retained jockeys stopping a fancied runner.

the bottom line as seen in even so called legal/straight races,there,s nothing especially punters in ireland would do to win even tiny amounts,
big on shots hammered into even bigger odds on shots
horses layed/wrung the last penny out of them
and we no its done in uk as well

Thank you CIK,was going to nip out and buy the paper to see Walsh's article,you've saved me a journey & a few bob,cheers.

this is it what needs to happen ,if racing has a future these yesterdays men need to be named and shamed in public

"Under pressure", so it can't have been this one:

https://www.racingpost.com/results/11/cheltenham/2016-03-17/643859

Cash is king , you will have to get up early to figure out the horse .

Also, if you want to read articles as good as this, sign up to the Times website, where you can read two a week for free.

If people keep posting them here for everyone to read without anyone clicking on the website, then David Walsh won't be seeing articles like this being published much longer.

Screaming - an alternative view is that by posting on here material that is otherwise only available to subscribers, more people will become inclined to take up subscriptions so that they can access such content directly.

You don't have to be a subscriber to read it though. Just register your e-mail address. You're not saving anyone any money. But you are denying the journalist the clicks which keep him on the payroll.

Great Article CIK ......Thanks for posting.

Those three trainers mentioned would be near the top of my list.

As for the colours that sprang to mind,Screaming was ahead of the game.

Just the "one favourite in the last 5 years",surely thats tongue in cheek ?

How about the Grade 1 races ?

famous case in one of the longer races in the 80s well before betfair..heavily backed  fav mysteriously tailed off.

What about the grade 1 races ? They were never even mentioned in the article or by anybody for that matter

playschool

Well ....  If it DID happen once in the Champion Hurdle (Brown's Gazette) ... then it really IS a 'Free for All'.

The champion hurdle has been a good race for stopped favourites , I can think of three straight away

The action around one of the favourites in the 80s was pretty big.

Not that the one in question was stopped as such. Just should never have run.

Somebody 'had it off' LARGE - screaming.

sfbtw

like rubmyback...only different?

3 stopped favs in the champion hurdle robo ?

Yes minimum 3 jimnast , could be more that I’m not aware of

Just thought of another one , that makes it 4 . In two of the 4 cases , horses didn’t complete

are you including istabraq and brownes gazzette robo ?

I’m going back to the 80’s Jimnast , I’m not singling out any particular horse

no worries robo out of interest with sweet fa else to do i will have a look back ,thanks for the decade.

@ scaredmoney: Well, the result was the same.

screaming from beneaththewaves will be upset but reproduced below is a just published RP article from Lee Mottershead which touches on the subject of the Viking Hoard scandal:

Ignorance isn't bliss - and Viking Hoard shows we can bury our heads no longer

There has been a common refrain these last few days. Questions, questions, questions. In a week of so many stories, there have remained so many questions but also so very few answers.

Sometimes it requires considerable bravery to ask a question, let alone to provide the right response.

David Mullins displayed such courage when asking himself if he really wanted to carry on as a jockey. It was plainly the right thing to do, for although a superb rider, he was a rider whose heart, by his own admission, was no longer in the job. To have the chance of starting a new life at 24 with a Grand National winner's trophy in your possession is a marvellous thing indeed.

Also to be welcomed was Ascot's announcement that the royal meeting will now have seven races each afternoon following the permanent introduction of five extra contests, including four of those brought in as a temporary measure last year. The fact it was at that stage stressed the contests were one-off additions underlines how big a deal this was deemed to be, yet given how competitive the new (or revived in the case of the Buckingham Palace) handicaps were, one wonders why the idea of running a seven-race card was ever seen as such sacrilege.

The team at BBC South News really should have asked a few basic questions before inaccurately reporting that Newbury racecourse had halted its Covid-19 vaccination process "to allow horseracing to go ahead". We can rightly bemoan that particular external media intrusion into the racing parish. It is far harder to complain about the decision of investigative journalists David Walsh and Paul Kimmage to begin looking at the sport's integrity in Ireland.

They were already interested – fuelled by intriguing comments made last year by Jim Bolger – even before news broke of the Viking Hoard doping and race-fixing scandal that resulted in trainer Charles Byrnes being banned for six months.

It must be stressed it was not established that Byrnes was connected to either the doping of the horse or any betting exchange lay wagers on the Tramore contest. What that in turn means is nobody has been identified – and therefore nobody has been held to account – for the actual doping, a crime that put multiple lives at risk. Given that crime seemingly took place on racecourse property and now well over two years ago, the failure of justice to be done is a matter for the most enormous regret.

It is not necessarily a surprise, for numerous crimes go unsolved. What in this case borders on the unforgivable is the absence of CCTV in the stable yard that must have made it immeasurably easier than it should have been for the unknown miscreant to nobble Viking Hoard. Past lessons have evidently not been learned by the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board. Worryingly, we can have no confidence they will be learned.

The BHA's manual for courses has long since stressed the need for all racecourse stables to have "a digital colour CCTV system", the document stating clearly: "A key consideration when considering layout is the requirement to provide the BHA Integrity Services & Licensing Department with good and clear CCTV coverage of the entire yard, including the main entrance and emergency exits."

Leopardstown remains the only racecourse in Ireland that would meet the licensing standards enforced in Britain. The IHRB has pointed out some other tracks have CCTV systems in stable yards for "property security reasons". That may potentially prevent the theft of somebody's packed lunch. It will likely not prevent a major security breach. As Walsh has quite correctly pointed out, it seems inconceivable €81.2 million was spent on the Curragh redevelopment without a fit-for-purpose CCTV system being installed.

Also hard to understand is why regulators and participants in so many jurisdictions, Ireland included, continue to turn what looks like a blind eye to Phoenix Thoroughbreds.
My colleague Peter Scargill this week revealed the UAE has become the third major racing nation to put a block on entries being made for Phoenix-owned horses, thus following the lead taken by the BHA and France Galop. This was a positive development.

That is not to say Phoenix or its founder Amer Abdulaziz have broken any laws. It is the case, however, that Phoenix has refused multiple requests from the Racing Post to name any of the 50 investors Abdulaziz referred to in June 2019.

Given the seriousness of the money laundering allegations made against Abdulaziz in a New York court – all of which have been strenuously denied – one would assume any regulator that allows Phoenix to operate, and any trainer, breeder or sales company that accepts Phoenix business, must surely have received clear information regarding the identity of those investors. If they have not, why not?

With avenues to Phoenix closed off in Britain, France and now reportedly the UAE, Australia has increasingly become its favoured home, as was made more obvious earlier this month when the organisation spent large sums of money at the Magic Millions Gold Coast Yearling Sale. Once again, one hopes those in receipt of that money were minded to ask questions and get answers.

The thing about questions, however, is they are best not asked if you would perhaps rather not know the answers. That suggests ignorance is bliss. When a sport's integrity is at stake, we should view ignorance as an enemy.

mottersdickhead is correct, but he was remarkably reluctant to use similar emotive language when confronted with the industrial-scale doping perpetrated by godolphin. the rp could not wait to bury the story, for reasons obvious even to bottom-feeders on here. everyone in racing knew they were at it, but nobody squawked about their 'new' notion of taking their nags to the gold-plated khazi for the british winter. exposure to the desert sun resulted in miraculous muscle growth and had nothing to do with the fact steroids were legal in dobuy at that time. byrnes wont cost anything to the rp so they can have a go, reprehensible though he probably is.

nor did the rp have anything to say about shakemo and wife no6 when he tried to wrestle control of her horses from her, on the grounds that he had paid for them. nothing. 'not a racing matter' it said.

fro you spineless twerp

Wasn't Godolphin's "wintering in Dubai" held to be a failure? Steroids or not, they seemed to underperform when returning to Newmarket's wintry air. At least, that is my recollection.

Done six grand for pulling one on Wednesday.

He has some neck.