Danny Brock, a jockey on the Flat from 2009 to 2021, will face a significant ban after the British
Horseracing Authority’s independent disciplinary panel decided on Tuesday he had deliberately stopped three horses as part of a conspiracy to profit from
betting on their races.
The BHA’s case against Brock and five other individuals, including Sean McBride, the son and assistant of the Newmarket
trainer Philip “Charlie” McBride, concerned three races at all-weather tracks between December 2018 and March 2019.
In two of the races,
Brock was beaten aboard Mochalov after a series of four-figure bets were placed against the horse on Betfair while in the other, a two-horse race at Southwell
on 7 March 2019, Brock was beaten on Samovar after heavy support for his opponent, Tricky Dicky. The horse was trained by Scott Dixon and started with a price
or 2-1.
Brock was slow to remove a hood from Samovar as the stalls opened and the horse then veered sharply left for several strides by which point,
the panel decided, “he was a dozen lengths or more adrift and the race was lost”. The panel added: “Mr Brock made no serious effort thereafter
until giving Samovar a slight push a furlong from home.”
The panel found Eugene Maloney, an acquaintance of McBride, had deposited £6,000
with Betfair on the morning of Samovar’s race, his largest deposit, and staked it all on Tricky Dicky. Andrew Perring, an acquaintance of Brock and
Maloney, staked £2,248 on the same horse, while Luke Howells, who was also found to be in breach of the anti-corruption rules, placed a bet of
£2,200 and McBride deposited £7,200 – at “a time when his average back bet was £209” – and staked almost all it against
Samovar.
Unusually, the panel hearing the case also considered a number of other races in which Brock was riding, as corroborative evidence regarding
betting patterns of the individuals alleged to be profiting from his activities.
These included a race at Chelmsford City on 19 September 2019 when
Brock was aboard the filly Resurrected, after she had been backed from long odds to start at 10-1 and subsequently winning the race. Trained by Philip McBride,
father of Sean. Brock was subsequently found to have used a “modified” whip with an elastic band wrapped around its tip and banned for seven days by
the BHA after Resurrected was found to have been wealed as a result.
The panel said Brock was “fortunate that none of the detail about the race
that has been canvassed in this inquiry was before the panel in that earlier race”.
The panel found that the BHA’s case against a sixth
individual, Luke Olley, was not proved, but he remains excluded from racing “without limit of time” having refused to cooperate with the inquiry. The
penalty for Brock, McBride and the remaining individuals found in breach was decided at a hearing on Thursday 19th Jan 2023.
Brock was disqualified
from racing for 15 years for deliberately stopping his mount in three races in December 2018 and March 2019. Sean McBride, the assistant trainer at a stable in
Newmarket belonging to his father, Philip, has been disqualified for seven years for his part in the race-fixing conspiracy, while three more individuals
– Eugene Maloney, Luke Howells and Andrew Perring – have been excluded from the sport for at least 15 years.
In two of the races at the heart
of the case, Brock ensured that Jane Chapple-Hyam’s Mochalov did not win after significant “lay” bets were placed against the horse on the
Betfair betting exchange. In the other previously mentioned two-horse race in which Brock rode Samovar for Scott Dixon, the conspirators won about
£100,000 by backing his only rival, Tricky Dicky.
After the announcement of the penalties, a spokesperson for the British Horseracing Authority
said the “welcome outcome sends a powerful message that conduct of this nature will never be tolerated in British racing”. The spokesperson added:
“The conduct of the individuals found in breach in this case risked undermining confidence in our sport and flagrantly disregarded the hard work and
dedication of people up and down the country who carry out their duties in good faith.
McBride was the only individual among those charged by the BHA
to engage with the independent disciplinary panel’s hearing into the case. It is unclear as yet whether the terms of his disqualification will prevent him
entering his father’s yard. |
Main
Menu
Welcome to the News desk. 
