Racing: Jockey Club investigates betting on Royal Insult

The Jockey Club is investigating the case of Royal Insult, whose odds drifted from 8-1 to 50-1 on the betting exchange site Betfair, before being pulled up in a race at Lingfield on Monday. The five-year-old, trained by Karl Burke and owned by the Platinum Racing syndicate, fractured a shoulder in the race and was put down by the course vet. He had a history of injury problems and had been off the track for a year.

"The stewards at Lingfield were alerted to the unusual betting patterns," a Jockey Club spokesman said yesterday. "A Jockey Club investigator confirmed the vet's diagnosis of a broken humerus and took blood samples from the horse. The case has been referred to Portman Square for investigation."

Despite his death, Royal Insult's name appears in the entries for today's second race at Southwell. This is the first day of a 10-week trial of 48-hour final declarations for races at the all-weather venues and Royal Insult's declaration would have been made before his demise. A switch from overnight declaration was requested by Attheraces in a drive to attract betting from overseas markets, regarded as an important source of revenue for the financial future of the television channel.

* Tickets for Royal Ascot (17 to 21 June) go on sale tomorrow. Officials advise early booking as Grandstand and Paddock tickets for Gold Cup day had sold out by 14 January last year.

Sandown under threat

Cheltenham and Exeter, two of today's four remaining cards, depend on 7.30am inspections. Cheltenham raced yesterday but overnight rain was forecast. No problems are expected at Leicester's all-chase card or on the all-weather at Southwell.

Prospects for the remainder of the week look bleak. Tomorrow's Folkestone meeting has been called off, but Ayr are confident of going ahead and there is also an all-weather meeting at Southwell. Ludlow and the all-weather card at Wolverhampton look safe on Friday but there is a 10am inspection at Hexham today for Friday's card. The course is waterlogged.

The going is heavy at Haydock and Newcastle, but there are no plans to inspect ahead of their Saturday meetings, unlike Sandown where there will be a 3pm inspection tomorrow. The clerk of the course, Andrew Cooper, said: "We may have seen another inch of rain by then. Yesterday we copped 30mm of rain when we were told to expect only 10mm and we are still waterlogged in places." There will also be an additional all-weather fixture at Southwell on Saturday.