Quartet arrested at Melton
Feature day marred as police swoop after investigation into Cobram event
Four people have reportedly been arrested at one of Australia’s biggest harness racing events as part of a race-fixing investigation in Victoria. Victoria Police arrested the four in connection to a year-long, race-fixing investigation after the Breeders Crown meeting at Melton on Sunday night, Fairfax and News Corp report.
Top trainer-driver Nathan Jack was among those arrested alongside his girlfriend and fellow leading driver and trainer, Amanda Turnbull.
Jack trains out of Shepparton and Menangle in NSW with Turnbull, with both seen as champions of the industry.
Harness Racing Victoria yesterday said a race in Cobram on June 22, 2015, won by Airborne Magic, trained by David Bartley, is at the centre of the investigation.
Tooram Lad, driven by Jack ran third at $4.60, ahead of the $1.70 favourite Dehillman.
The Herald Sun understands as much as $30,000 was won on the race by figures connected to participants.
HRV’s integrity department began an investigation shortly after the race and then handed the matter over to police in November.
Chairman Dale Monteith says he fully supports the police swoop at the Breeders Crown as it sends a clear message to people in the industry who’ve been “crying out” for action.
In relation to the timing of the arrests, Monteith said that a number of the people involved lived outside Victoria but were in Melton on Sunday. Monteith, who ran the Victoria Racing Club from 2000 to 2012, was appointed to chair the HRV board in March this year.
Victorian Racing Integrity Commissioner Sal Perna says race-fixing is rare in the state.
“This shows that Harness Racing Victoria is on the ball,” Perna told AAP yesterday.
“They’ve picked up something that’s suspicious and the system that’s in place has worked.”
HRV investigated the case and sent it on to Victoria Police’s specialist sporting integrity unit which coordinated Sunday’s arrests.
NSW Police also have a casino and racing investigation unit but no other jurisdiction in Australia has a specialist sports squad.
“So from a lot of perspectives this is a positive,” Mr Perna said.
“Alleged race-fixing is rare. There’s nothing to suggest we’ve got a systemic issue.”
Mr Perna said there’d now been two instances of “this type of behaviour” and both had been detected by the racing bodies. “Both have been successfully handled.
“The relationship we’ve got with Victoria Police is a very strong one and they’ve been able to come in, in both instances, so we think we’re doing OK.”
Celebrated Mildura trainer Shayne Cramp fixed the outcome of a race in late 2014 with his father Greg Cramp in order to win a bet.
Both were sentenced to community service in September 2015 after pleading guilty to engaging in conduct to corrupt a betting outcome.