Racing regulators have a new name since the police were first brought in by the Jockey Club early in 2004. But in their new guise, the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) must take much of the blame arising from the fiasco of the collapsed race-fixing trial. When the Jockey Club instigated this ill-fated investigation by passing on what was believed to be evidence of malpractice to City of London detectives early in 2004, extreme caution was advised. Throughout the racing industry, memories were bright of a previous, unhappy experience with the long arm of the law. In 1998 police had arrested of a number of jockeys as part of an inquiry into a doping scandal, sparking lurid headlines that damaged severely racing's image, but achieved nothing else. A repeat would, the authorities were warned, risk causing considerable anger if once again everything ended in little but embarrassment.
Stand by for the anticipated anger. I'm sure officials will argue that not only did they set the ball rolling in good faith, but that it was the police - and ultimately the Crown Prosecution Service (CPS) - that decided to proceed to court, and not them. Why then was this perilous route taken? The police never really understood what horse racing was all about - embarrassingly, one of their senior officers admitted as much during the trial - and went up a blind alley. The CPS followed. Presumably, the racing authorities imagined they knew what they were doing. The police should have never been involved in this, and the great irony is that racing's regulators have shown themselves very capable of dealing with online betting exchange-related miscreants over the last year or so.
| 606: DEBATE Source: BBC Sport 
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