Michael Chopra has been a very naughty boy.

Michael Chopra of Ipswich, along with James Coppinger and several others have been charged in connection with race-fixing by the BHA.

Looks like he and some friends paid a jockey to lose races, so they could lay the horses to lose.

Some people really like betting exchanges where you can lay horses as well as back them, but to me it is an easy way to fiddle races by backing horses to lose, when you already know the jockey isn't going to try and win on it. It really doesn't take much to stop a horse winning. A split second pull of the reins, a manouever which makes puts the horse in an impossible position behind a wall of other horses, or just sticking it out at the back of the field and not ever giving it the chance to gain it's best position.

At most I believe Chopra and co will be warned off of racetracks and bookmakers, so they are effectively banned from betting in person, but they of course could bet using accounts.

The Police have been informed of the details and as yet haven't charged them with anything criminal, but this could happen at any stage.

Chopra has famously admitted to being addicted to gambling, and losing between £1 million-£2 million. He also admitted that he only left Cardiff for Ipswich in order to receive a signing on fee which was in the region of £250,000. Ipswich were also paying part of his wages to some of his creditors at one stage, but I don't know if this is still the case.

Good striker but I can't see how he can always be concentrating on playing when he is gambling £20,000 a day.

Twice in my life have I put on bets. Once about 40 years ago I was sent to put on a £5 bet for my boss. It lost. Again about six years ago I put on a £5 bet for me. It lost.

Do you think third time lucky would work?

How could anyone accuse a professional footballer of cheating? It simply could not occur.

The thing is that when you have inside info and the ability to win by your horse losing its a recipe for disaster (as well as the saving of British racing). Jock could regale you with stories about what trainers/owners/jockeys send their horses out with the direct instruction to not push the horse too far. They are not cheating as such as these are living beasts and let's say a horse decides to race half a mile further than he's ever done on a wet Wednesday at Wincanton, the jockey may be told to not push the horse too hard unless he's clearly going to win the race. That's training the horse. - *****

The issue comes when that information becomes knowledge to people who wish to profit from it. Then it is no different than insider trading.

It goes on every day at every racecourse.

What Chopra "did" was take this one step further and try to pay a bung. It would have been easier and alot less hassle to simply become an owner and receive the nod from the trainer.

**** I know a few racehorse owners (small time) and they deliberately booked Tony McCoy to ride their horse as they wanted to know the answer to the question - "Is this horse worth keeping in training?" They booked Tony to give them an assessment in racing conditions and win if he's cantering to victory. The former was more important than the latter. To cover the costs they layed the horse.

Nick Wall wrote:

To cover the costs they layed the horse.

That's going a bit far, isn't it? The horse probably said 'didn't even touch the sides'.

Innocent Egbunike wrote:

Nick Wall wrote:

To cover the costs they layed the horse.

That's going a bit far, isn't it? The horse probably said 'didn't even touch the sides'.

Bestiality now! That's really going to get the curtains twitching.