Racing: Bets secrecy an obstacle to new Club crackdown

The drawbridge will soon be coming down at Portman Square and a counterattack launched by the singed knights of the Jockey Club. After a recent past which has seen the likes of Panorama and Kenyon Confronts come banging on the portcullis with tree trunks, racing's mandarins have draughted a five-point plan to restore the sport's integrity.

To begin with, the big bookmakers and betting exchanges will be approached after suspicious races and asked for details of bets wagered. The exchanges also feature in a second suggestion, that trainers should not be allowed to lay one of their horses to lose.

Discussions are already under way to hugely limit the use of mobile phones in the weighing room and changing areas at tracks, following the recent revelations of last-minute information being passed on to professional punters. To this end, is it recommended that weighing room security officers will be introduced and CCTV put in to monitor access to jockeys.

The use of CCTV will also be expanded at course stables. The new recommendation is for up to 12 colour cameras per site, linked to a central monitoring and recording facility.

Most taxing will be the Jockey Club's efforts to try to negotiate agreements with betting exchanges and bookmakers as they try to gain access to betting information relevant to races under investigation. This cuts across one of the few principles the layers have ever heard of, that of client confidentiality.

"It is something for us and the bookmakers and betting exchanges to sort out," John Maxse, for the Jockey Club, said yesterday. "I hope I'm not being naïve in noting that there has been a change in view on this matter from the bookmakers themselves. They recognise the need to maximise confidence in the product. We may not be successful but there is no harm in trying."

There is, it seems, still some way to go. "The integrity of racing is as important to bookmakers as it is to the Jockey Club," Simon Clare, a spokesman for Coral, said yesterday. "We have always provided as much information as possible to the Jockey Club in relation to races which have caused concern, where unusual betting patterns have taken place, but a foundation stone of our service is client confidentiality. A bet remains a gentlemen's private agreement between bookmaker and client. So that is a stumbling block."

There is a draconian attitude to mobile phones in the weighing rooms of racecourses in Australia, Hong Kong and Japan. They, in effect, confiscate them from jockeys on arrival at the course. Under a proposed new system, British riders will be able to use their mobiles until shortly before the first race, when the "currency of information" starts to be shared in the weighing room.

The new weighing room security officers will then check that no-one is using their personal mobiles, though the officers themselves will carry mobiles for general use, for calls which can be monitored and replayed. In addition, there will also be a laptop computer available for jockeys to contact their agents and trainers by e-mail, again information which could be recorded.

The attempt to ban trainers laying horses on betting exchange sites will be difficult. Jockeys have been flouting the betting laws for years by getting their friends to put on for them.

"It will be a difficult rule to police," Maxse admitted. "That's why we are looking at extending it to include others who might have access to privileged information, for example owners and stable staff.

"The threat to the sport's integrity is greater if someone uses information about a horse's negative chances rather than positive. Backing a horse to win requires all those concerned to be doing their very best. Laying a horse to lose leaves open the opportunity for trainer or rider or stable staff to do something to affect a horse's chances of doing its best."