Racing: Jockeys' spokesman scornful of Buffham's allegations

The contribution of the chief witness for the prosecution in the Panorama portrayal, screened last night on BBC1, of horse racing as a sport that is riddled with rogues and run by fools, was yesterday called into question by the spokesman for Britain's jockeys, Michael Caulfield.

Professional riders are referred to particularly harshly in the programme, billed "The Corruption of Racing", with Roger Buffham, the former head of security at the Jockey Club, claiming that "a whole generation of National Hunt jockeys had close links to organised crime". The programme makes no attempt to substantiate that proposition, and Caulfield, the executive secretary of the Jockeys' Association, said: "It simply isn't true. There's no evidence to back it up. It is a horrible slur. Just Roger Buffham's continued dislike of a group of very decent, honest sports people.

"The jump jockeys won't take it seriously. In risking serious injury every time they go out to ride on a racecourse they've got far bigger things to think about than whatever Roger Buffham has to say about them."

It is not unnatural that the chief security officer of the regulatory body should hardly be the most popular figure on the racetrack, but during Buffham's tenure in the job his relationship with the members of the riding and training professions was particularly strained.

Caulfield believes that the public will make its own judgement on Panorama's fairness in its treatment of racing and that there will be no lasting affect on people's desire to support the sport and to be associated with it through racegoing or by betting. "Despite all the negative pre-publicity surrounding the programme, the crowd at Uttoxeter on Saturday was 4,000 up on the corresponding fixture last year," Caulfield said.

"The public will decide and I don't think they will turn their backs on racing. They know it is an inherently straight sport."

It is a view echoed by Simon Clare of the bookmakers Coral. Speaking of the betting figures for the weekend – one of the most important in the calendar with a major handicap in the Cambridgeshire and Europe's premier all-aged race, the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe – he said: "There was no impact. As usual, Cambridgeshire day was a terrific day for turnover."

"Without being complacent, we don't believe this high-profile attack on racing's integrity will have any lasting impact on the sport, although it is essential that the Jockey Club responds quickly to the accusations brought against them."

"Punter confidence in the integrity of racing is vital for bookmakers. And while the image may have been tarnished, we don't think it will effect turnover in the short or long term."

Speaking from Longchamp, John Maxse, the Jockey Club's public relations director, who, unlike the press, was not allowed to see the programme before it was broadcast, reiterated his criticisms of its fairness.

"We asked Panorama several times to be allowed to see the programme's content and were denied. Christopher Foster [the Jockey Club's executive director] answered 250 questions that were put to him by Panorama during an interview that lasted more than two hours. Only a fraction are included in the programme and give a distorted picture.

"The public are not being given the full facts," Maxse said. "It is astonishing that the BBC omit to inform viewers of vital and relevant facts about their principal witnesses.

"First and foremost they say nothing about the circumstances under which Roger Buffham left the Jockey Club. He left after an investigation into allegations of gross misconduct.

"And secondly they say nothing about Dermot Browne [the ex-jockey who claims to have doped horses in 1990] being banned from racing by the Jockey Club 10 years ago.

"Omissions of that magnitude are, to me, an indication of the bias of the programme."