Racing: Jockey makes cheating claim
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Your support makes all the difference.THE Jockey Club plans to interview Mark Giles over allegations of "cheating". A Club official will go to Austria, the new base of the rider, who claimed, "I stopped a lot of horses in my career."
Jockey Club spokesman John Maxse said: "We'd like to interview Mark Giles. We'll probably send an investigating officer to see him when an opportunity arises. Mark Giles has not ridden in public in Britain since 1991 and is not licensed in this country, so our powers are limited. But he claims he was told to stop horses by people who are still licensed and we will ask him about that."
Giles, who rode 40 winners on the Flat in Britain from 1984 to 1991, alleged in a Sunday newspaper article: "If I was told to stop a horse I did it". He gave details of four unnamed horses he was instructed not to win on.
But Maxse said: "Of the four cases he mentions, he won on one and two others he made the running and it would be difficult to make a case out under rule 151 for those. He also mentions running horses over the wrong trip or on the wrong going and it would be difficult to make a case out of that too."
Maxse stressed that action has been taken to counter instances Giles referred to of young jockeys being forced to stop horses to keep their jobs. The 31-year-old rider claimed: "People told me, 'shut up, listen. Do as you are told. If you don't it's your last ride for me'."
But Maxse said: "The Jockey Club is aware that apprentices and up-and- coming riders have to please their employers and can be put in a difficult situation. So, in the new changes to Rule 151 which come in this week, a rider is assumed to have ridden to orders unless a trainer can prove otherwise.
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