Racing: Trial by TV fails to shake confidence in Jockey Club

Racing has a tendency to throw up unpredictable results but there would have been few who had heard the ambitious claims made before Sunday's screening of Panorama's "The Corruption of Racing" who would have been prepared to bet that the reaction to the programme would be vindication for the Jockey Club and vilification for the BBC team.

Panorama has somehow managed to push people with long-held criticisms of the Jockey Club to spring to its defence as the aged institution received a vicious mugging from the boys at the BBC. The sight of grey-haired, purple-faced pensioners being picked on by a well-armed, excessively smug interviewer was not pleasant.

Backing for the Jockey Club came from two important quarters, the Government and, more vitally, those within the racing industry that the Club continues to govern and whose confidence must be retained.

Richard Caborn, the Minster for Sport, said: "The club has worked hard in recent years to maintain the integrity of racing as a sport and as a betting product; and punters can have a good measure of confidence.

"The action taken already by the Jockey Club to root out malpractice or corruption within the sport has my full support."

Caborn reiterated the Government's commitment to reforms that would untie the Jockey Club's hands when it comes to investigating and successfully prosecuting those that seek to profit illegally from the sport. "Our plans for the reform of gambling law, published in March as 'A safe bet for success', include proposals to establish a Gambling Commission, which would be responsible for regulating bookmaking alongside other forms of gambling, and which would have powers to co-operate and exchange information with the Jockey Club as racing's regulatory body."

Racehorse owners, as the people who pay the bills, have most to lose if trainers or jockeys are involved in deception. Their representative, Michael Harris, chief executive of the Racehorse Owners Association, said: "The inference of the programme was that racing is rife with skulduggery, which I would absolutely refute. It was as if Panorama set out with the intention of nailing racing and scratched around to find the evidence to substantiate this. But the facts were pretty flimsy and based on the words of a man [Roger Buffham] who was out to get revenge on the Jockey Club.

"However, it has to be accepted that some of the images left a bad taste in the mouth. Jeremy Phipps, head of security, did not come across like a man who could spot skulduggery if it were staring him in the face.

"If the programme has done any good at all it is to remind those in racing that they must all play their part in ensuring that racing is beyond reproach. Sometimes this will require taking uncomfortable decisions."

Rupert Arnold, chief executive of the National Trainers Federation, has experience of uncomfortable decisions taken to ensure racing's integrity and believes these confirm the Jockey Club's rigour. "Trainers and jockeys take the brunt of regulation in racing and we are well positioned to understand the motivation of the Jockey Club when they impose regulation," he said. "Their commitment to the public's interest is constant and we are very confident in their ability to regulate racing.

"If Panorama spent that time trying to mount a case and came up with only three individuals to support it, that tells you about the proportion of the problem."

If British racing is to flourish then it is vital that it retains the confidence of the biggest players who can base their strings anywhere in the world. None come bigger than the Maktoum family of Dubai, whose Godolphin operation won Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. Simon Crisford, their spokesman, said: "We are more than happy with the state of British horseracing. It's the best in the world as far as integrity goes."

Frankie Dettori, Godolphin's jockey, added his own view of the programme: "I thought it was absolute rubbish," he said. "Nothing new came out. It was old things that we all knew about. They have all been in the newspapers and in the courts. I have been all over the world and, with the Jockey Club, racing in England is probably the best, most policed sport in the world."

That policing continues this month when Dermot Browne, one of Panorama's leading witnesses, faces a Jockey Club hearing into his confession that he was responsible for the doping of 27 horses a decade ago. His 10-year ban from racing ends on 27 October but is odds-on to be extended into a life sentence.

The Jockey Club have also set aside three days in November to deal with seven individuals, including the ex-jockeys Barrie Wright and Graham Bradley. The latter has said in court that he passed information to the gambler Brian Wright but last night protested his innocence.

"A number of specific allegations were made against me by Panorama," Bradley said. "But they were based largely on information obtained from what can only be described as dubious sources. Those allegations are untrue and I am asking my lawyers to advise on the possibility of legal action against the BBC and those who appeared on the programme.

"I have never 'fixed' races for anyone. The only example given by Panorama was the Man Mood race at Warwick. That race has been investigated twice by the Jockey Club, and also by the police in a high-profile and lengthy investigation. On every occasion I have been cleared of all charges.

"As a result of the Panorama programme and the related media coverage I am now deeply concerned that I have no chance of receiving a fair hearing at the end of November."

Before that, though, the Jockey Club must decide what to do with Major General Phipps, who looked thoroughly foxed by the BBC. The Senior Steward and his advisers are to meet this week to discuss their full response to the programme. The future of their top intelligence operative is sure to be on the agenda.