Racing: Secret recording trips up turf sleuth

The integrity of racing will be in the dock on Sunday evening when an hour-long edition of Panorama will detail corruption in the sport spreading back over a decade. Yesterday the black wig seemed on its way out of the drawer with the fresh revelation that the BBC programme will feature the Jockey Club's recently appointed head of security talking in disparaging and colourful terms about his new employers.

The remarks of Jeremy Phipps were made in a meeting with his predecessor as racing's chief policeman, Roger Buffham. Buffham is Panorama's main whistleblower and the documents he accumulated during his tenure at Portman Square form a considerable plank of Sunday's exposé.

It was in an attempt to gauge Buffham's involvement with Panorama that Phipps arranged a meeting in April. Unknown to the Jockey Club, Buffham had an agenda, too, as he sat down to dinner. He was wearing recording equipment.

There followed a near comical exchange as the two sleuths tried to draw information from each other. The Jockey Club line now is that Phipps disparaged his colleagues in an effort to ingratiate himself with his dining companion.

"As is routine when trying to gain someone's confidence in order to obtain information, I agreed and supported Roger's views about certain individuals and the Jockey Club in general," Phipps says. "During the meeting Roger lied about the extent of his involvement with Panorama, admitting he had only been approached by the programme makers when at the time he was probably wearing recording equipment supplied by them.

"My aim that evening was simply to acquire information and, in trying to do so, I played up to Buffham. It is ridiculous to suggest the views I expressed are what I really believe." It is the old fingers crossed excuse.

In a subsequent interview with Phipps, the Panorama reporter Andy Davies produced a transcript of the secret recording and questioned him at a time the Jockey Club believed the BBC crew were going about "general illustrative filming".

Christopher Foster, executive director, said yesterday: "This is the area in which the Jockey Club is most aggrieved by the conduct of the BBC. The taped comments of Jeremy Phipps were not his private views of the Jockey Club. He was simply trying to extract information from Roger Buffham. We believe it is not only unfair but also wrong of Panorama to try to contrast secretly taped views expressed for a particular purpose with Jeremy's public statements to the media."

Phipps came to the Jockey Club with the formidable cachet of being an ex-SAS man and a participant in the Iranian Embassy Siege of 1980. Sunday's programme, entitled "The Corruption In Racing", may now see the end of a posting not yet 12 months old.

Certainly those at Portman Square are steeling themselves for a public relations mauling. "I'm concerned about the impact of the programme," Foster added. "I imagine there will be some negative criticism of the Jockey Club ahead in the short term. But, in the long term, I don't think this will do any damage to the integrity of racing." That also was delivered with fingers crossed.