Peter Corrigan: Cheltenham gallops to racing's rescue

Just in the nick of time, the cavalry are coming charging over the hill. The gallant steeds being spurred to glory in the Cheltenham Festival this week will be bringing much-needed relief to a horseracing industry surrounded by scandalous allegations and hordes of whooping scalp-hunters.

Just in the nick of time, the cavalry are coming charging over the hill. The gallant steeds being spurred to glory in the Cheltenham Festival this week will be bringing much-needed relief to a horseracing industry surrounded by scandalous allegations and hordes of whooping scalp-hunters.

No branch of sport attracts as many accusations of crookedness and sharp practice, or so many critics who delight in the opportunity to denigrate the passion and pastime of millions.

The Festival, one of the genuine folk events of the sporting calendar, will do much to refocus the spotlight on real heroes and unquestionable feats of pace, stamina and horsemanship. A breath of clean and bracing air will be very welcome - and with any luck the bookmakers will take as big a hammering as they did last year.

There will be some, however, taking a keener look at the action as it unfolds over the rolling Gloucestershire countryside on Tuesday, Wednesday and Thursday because of last week's outbreak of fascinating intimations of skulduggery. The first concerned no lesser figure than Keiren Fallon, the champion Flat jockey, who was banned by the Jockey Club for 21 days for failing to ride out Ballinger Ridge to the line in a race at Lingfield. Ballinger Ridge was well clear but eased up and was passed on the line by a horse called Rye, the odds-on favourite. Further charges may follow for Fallon.

Another jockey, Sean Fox, was then suspended for 21 days after leaving the saddle of his mount Ice Saint at Fontwell in a strange and abrupt manner. The stewards found him in breach of rules in that "he had stepped off his horse". "They must think I'm barmy to suggest I'd jump off a horse travelling at 30 mph," said an indignant Fox, who could also face further charges.

The third happening was the Jockey Club charging a trainer, two jockeys and a farrier with fraudulent practice in running a lame horse in a race at Carlisle and offering generous prices on betting exchanges for it to win.

The first result of this triple whammy of alleged misbehaviour is likely to be extra eyes fixed on Cheltenham; but the unin-itiated are going to be disappointed if they expect to spot lawlessness occurring amid the flailing hooves. This is one meeting in which almost every sinew, human and equine, is strained towards winning.

Fallon won't be on view, of course. Not only is he serving his ban, this is the wrong branch of the sport. He is a Flat racing jockey, and although it is not unknown for them to take a turn in the company of their heavier brethren in the National Hunt saddles - Lester Piggott used to enjoy rides over the jumps - the lighter you are the more weight they would have to put in the saddle, which is dead weight and a decided disadvantage. It is also a far more dangerous activity, and so acute are the suspicions now that they even penalise jockeys for not falling off properly.

What has brought extra trouble to Sean Fox, and to Fallon, is that their supposed sins were committed in parallel with "unusual betting patterns" on the betting exchanges. This is where it gets complicated. My colleague Nick Townsend explains the fairly new and explosive phenomenon of betting exchanges below. Basically, they allow the punter to take bets as well as place them. This offers many opportunities for the unscrupulous; it means that anyone who is certain a horse is going to lose can offer good odds against and clean up.

Whether the result of some crooked activity during the race or not, this undoubtedly happens, and it has become a thorn in the Jockey Club's jockey shorts about which they need to act urgently. Professional stewards would be a start.

Loudest among the complainants about the sudden growth of betting exchanges are the bookmakers. This is pretty rich, because the bookies have long been aware that there is far more money to be made from losers than winners. They have an intelligence network that may sometimes warn them about a cert winner but more regularly tells them which horse is just out for the run and no danger to their profits.

In contrast, the exchanges do not care which horse wins. They earn their money from a percentage of the turnover which, at the last estimate, was running at £50m a week.

Obviously, the bookie fraternity are not keen that their ability to make money out of non-triers is now open to a much wider constituency. But when they were in sole charge of the market, we heard about strange betting patterns only when the bookies lost. The exchanges are far more informative. Because the result doesn't make any difference to them they dutifully pass on news of suspicious betting.

So the supposed increase in dodgy results is more likely to be due to more open bookmaking than to any increase in actual offending. As for those who use the exchanges, they may not be plentiful at Cheltenham this week because the serious exchange punter has to spend all afternoon staring at the computer to keep an eye on the rapidly changing odds, even when the race is on. Many are former traders from the Stock Exchange and are experts on calculating the margins.

It can never replace the pleasure of going to the course and being part of Cheltenham's 60,000 jostling to get a bet on at the bookmaker's stand or on the Tote. You can telephone a bet on the exchange from the course, and you'll get an average 20 per cent better odds, but the minimum stake is £50.

The course bookies took major losses last year because the favourites tended to win. The same big winners - Best Mate, Moscow Flyer, Baracouda and Rooster Booster - will be back this year, but the bookies are banking on them not repeating the punishment.

Of all the doubtful characters in racing, the most unreliable of those involved are the horses themselves, and anyone who loves the sport factors into their calculations a nag's temperament, the trainer's reputation and the jockey's probity.

And you take your defeats like a man. For all its many faults and miscreants, horseracing is still a wonderful sport, and never more so than when the Cheltenham Festival signals the start of spring.

Winter blunderland

Despite an agreement in principle that a mid-season break in January would be beneficial to our football, the idea has been kicked into touch. To create room for a two-week break it would have been necessary to scrap replays in the fifth and sixth rounds of the FA Cup. But the FA Challenge Cup Committee, under the chairmanship of that man of vision Ken Bates, voted down the proposal. The decision is likely to be ratified at tomorrow's full council meeting.

Prime among those who favoured the break was the England manager, Sven Goran Eriksson, who expressed "extreme disappointment" but who is refusing to give up the fight and may attend the meeting. "It is wrong," he said. "I haven't found one manager who didn't want a winter break. I can't understand why the committee went against it." Perhaps they had second thoughts after Leicester City's experiences last week. Imagine if every Premier League club took a sunshine break in the middle of the season. There would be a strong risk of not enough players making it back for the restart.