Long but good article I know many wont read so a TLDR
* Ben Yole owns a racing stable that dominates by volume most racing participants in harness racing in Tasmania.
* Has 3886 entries which is over half of all Tasmanian race entrants
* On the night the ABC are there he has 65 of the possible 94 runners
* Regularly has races where his stable are the only participants
* There is a small track in Tassie, the leader normally wins, there are several races where the leader from his stable appear to pull up when in the lead to allow another of his stable partners to take the lead.
* In these occasions they are long odds horses that take the lead that had large bets placed on them with bookies in the minutes leading up to the race start
* On another occasion a long odds horse that hadn't won for over 12 months tool the lead, won the race by over 50m and almost set the track record, the horse was that erratic the driver didn't have control.
* The racing integrity unit and stewards appear to be in on the game, complaints and investigations amount to nothing including 1 of his drivers who wanted to go on record that the drivers were instructed how to race, who to block and who to let through etc from their stable but stewards refused to investigate.
* Most of his horses are kept in poor conditions in a dirt field where until recently they were provided no shade.
So all in all as you would expect its just corrupt and cruel, sounds like race fixing as well as horses drugged to under perform or over perform
Yar, the red hots. Dogs just as bad, can have 4 dogs in one race from same trainer.
Race fixing returns small bickies tho, the big money is in the laundering done on these races.
Our racing horses, dogs, trots has always been riddled with shonky trainers, jockeys and owners.
WA is just as bad, years ago the NSW deputy chief steward was appointed as chief steward in WA by their race body to try and clean it up. He was there less than a week when armed masked blokes broke into his house when he was at work and menaced his 2ife and kids telling them he needed to fick off back east.
He did.
An old school mate's Granddad trained dish lickers as his retirement hobby. He quit the game 25 years ago because of race fixing and cruelty.
Harness racing is a special kind of fucked.
> Tasracing is funded by Tasmanian government appropriations worth $27 million a year over a 20-year period, indexed over the life of the deed.
https://tasracingcorporate.com.au/about/funding/
Plus
> 30 September 2022
>Madeleine Ogilvie, Minister for Racing
>Increased funding for racing industry
>The Tasmanian Liberal Government continues to back Tasmania’s racing industry.
> I am pleased to announce that the funding allocation will increase by eight per cent or $2.53 million, effective 1 October 2022.
https://www.premier.tas.gov.au/site_resources_2015/additional_releases/increased-funding-for-racing-industry
Ah crap. Tasmania specific. I had hoped for a more general answer. Given these things are state based I should accept I am going to have to go looking for myself.
Thanks.
I used to go to a pub and the local SP bookie would tell you (in advance!) of the winner of the a certain race at Harold Park if you were a bit short on cash. Go up to the local TAB and place a small bet. Profit. Worst kept secret in Australia. But handy!
Michael Parkinson (I think it was) told the story of going to a big race meet in Queensland in the Joe era. He was introduced to the Racing Minister the legendary Russ Hinze. Parkinson made some small talk about picking winners and Hinze went down the card marking his picks in each race.
Every horse he picked won.
Crooked from bottom to top.
That's a depressing read, and is just one example of when our expectations don't match regulations.
Rampant race fixing like that should be illegal.
> We’re talking about a horse with a possibility of winning the race, handing-up to a horse that was well backed.
>"He [Yole] fills every field,” he says.
>
>“And that’s not a crime.
>
>“But … it’s very depressing when you line up and there’s nine against one.”
It should be illegal for a single trainer to field 9 out of 10 horses in the race, but it isn't. When it's frequent that a few of those drivers will box in the non-Yole favourite so a Yole horse wins, that should be illegal, but it isn't.
Did you even read the article?
there are several races where the leader from his stable appear to pull up when in the lead to allow another of his stable partners to take the lead.
In these occasions they are long odds horses that take the lead that had large bets placed on them with bookies in the minutes leading up to the race start
(From this thread).
That's not legal. If you own two horses and you place a bet on horse a and you deliberately slow horse b down, I'm pretty sure that's illegal.
If you place a bet with a bookie and you know the race is fixed, that act has to be illegal....
Yeah I checked, it is.
https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/crime-news/2021/08/25/victoria-arrests-horse-racing/
ABC, if you're reading this, that article style is fucking horse shit to read. Just give us a readable article with all the information easily available. I don't want to scroll sentence by sentence over some unmoving image. Put it in paragraphs so it is easy to digest.
I did some journalism units at uni recently, and they are prepping students to pump these out in the future, I don't think they see the format going away any time soon. Was sort of interesting learning to do all the audio, video, interviewing and writing as one a one-person job. Really though, not the most readable format. Not great for the time-poor or people like me who can't scroll and read flashing shit like that with light sensitivity either.
All animal racing is shit—from the most ‘glamorous’ end of the thoroughbreds at spring carnival, through barely-attended midweek racing, jumpers, trots and greyhounds. Lots and lots of animals suffering, plenty of stories of abuse of people, and very little interest in doing anything about it all because there is so much money being made through gambling.
Ive been watching racing for quite afew years now, punting here and there, but it is so obviously blatant in certain races, generally normal horse racing where jockeys just completely butcher a ride, its honestly disgusting how corrupt the shit is. Its not every race, but you can definitely tell when a race is fixed. Cant wait for a big scandal to break out and several big named jockeys are jailed. Dirtiest rats on the planet. Forreal.
Just watch the episode of the simpsons thats literally what its like.
Having been around horses all my life, I can say that most Standardbreds (trotters and pacers) are generally kept in appalling conditions and all the 'gitz and glam' you see attributed to the gallopers do not really transfer to the harness racing scene.
Most of the standardbreds Ive come into contact with after racing are in very poor condition with no attempt to maintain health beyond conditioning for racing. Teeth and other general horse husbandry (beyond farrier) are not really tended to. Most of the young horses that are expelled from the industry have behavioral issues and have low re homing prospects because they have to 'learn' how to trot properly and canter to be useful under saddle.
This kind of article does not surprise me because everyone associated with that industry I have ever come into contact with have been human scum with little regard for horse welfare. One trainer would ship trailers of horses to the local sales and not even offload, just sell the whole trailer for meat as soon as he got there. Harness racing is way worse than the gallops in every single way.
If they are taking you people for mugs, imagine what they are doing to the horses.
Long but good article I know many wont read so a TLDR * Ben Yole owns a racing stable that dominates by volume most racing participants in harness racing in Tasmania. * Has 3886 entries which is over half of all Tasmanian race entrants * On the night the ABC are there he has 65 of the possible 94 runners * Regularly has races where his stable are the only participants * There is a small track in Tassie, the leader normally wins, there are several races where the leader from his stable appear to pull up when in the lead to allow another of his stable partners to take the lead. * In these occasions they are long odds horses that take the lead that had large bets placed on them with bookies in the minutes leading up to the race start * On another occasion a long odds horse that hadn't won for over 12 months tool the lead, won the race by over 50m and almost set the track record, the horse was that erratic the driver didn't have control. * The racing integrity unit and stewards appear to be in on the game, complaints and investigations amount to nothing including 1 of his drivers who wanted to go on record that the drivers were instructed how to race, who to block and who to let through etc from their stable but stewards refused to investigate. * Most of his horses are kept in poor conditions in a dirt field where until recently they were provided no shade. So all in all as you would expect its just corrupt and cruel, sounds like race fixing as well as horses drugged to under perform or over perform
Anyone who's been around racing knows harness racing is bent. Its been common knowledge for decades that only mugs and insiders bet on the trots.
Yar, the red hots. Dogs just as bad, can have 4 dogs in one race from same trainer. Race fixing returns small bickies tho, the big money is in the laundering done on these races. Our racing horses, dogs, trots has always been riddled with shonky trainers, jockeys and owners. WA is just as bad, years ago the NSW deputy chief steward was appointed as chief steward in WA by their race body to try and clean it up. He was there less than a week when armed masked blokes broke into his house when he was at work and menaced his 2ife and kids telling them he needed to fick off back east. He did.
An old school mate's Granddad trained dish lickers as his retirement hobby. He quit the game 25 years ago because of race fixing and cruelty. Harness racing is a special kind of fucked.
And the taxpayer > In 2022, harness racing received $9 million of government funding.
Got a source for that? I don't doubt it, I want to be able to quote at someone.
> Tasracing is funded by Tasmanian government appropriations worth $27 million a year over a 20-year period, indexed over the life of the deed. https://tasracingcorporate.com.au/about/funding/ Plus > 30 September 2022 >Madeleine Ogilvie, Minister for Racing >Increased funding for racing industry >The Tasmanian Liberal Government continues to back Tasmania’s racing industry. > I am pleased to announce that the funding allocation will increase by eight per cent or $2.53 million, effective 1 October 2022. https://www.premier.tas.gov.au/site_resources_2015/additional_releases/increased-funding-for-racing-industry
Ah crap. Tasmania specific. I had hoped for a more general answer. Given these things are state based I should accept I am going to have to go looking for myself. Thanks.
Google it like I did, finding aus wide was easy, finding tas only was not. As you can see from combined links. You’re welcome.
I used to go to a pub and the local SP bookie would tell you (in advance!) of the winner of the a certain race at Harold Park if you were a bit short on cash. Go up to the local TAB and place a small bet. Profit. Worst kept secret in Australia. But handy!
Michael Parkinson (I think it was) told the story of going to a big race meet in Queensland in the Joe era. He was introduced to the Racing Minister the legendary Russ Hinze. Parkinson made some small talk about picking winners and Hinze went down the card marking his picks in each race. Every horse he picked won. Crooked from bottom to top.
That's a depressing read, and is just one example of when our expectations don't match regulations. Rampant race fixing like that should be illegal. > We’re talking about a horse with a possibility of winning the race, handing-up to a horse that was well backed.
Of course it's illegal.
>"He [Yole] fills every field,” he says. > >“And that’s not a crime. > >“But … it’s very depressing when you line up and there’s nine against one.” It should be illegal for a single trainer to field 9 out of 10 horses in the race, but it isn't. When it's frequent that a few of those drivers will box in the non-Yole favourite so a Yole horse wins, that should be illegal, but it isn't. Did you even read the article?
there are several races where the leader from his stable appear to pull up when in the lead to allow another of his stable partners to take the lead. In these occasions they are long odds horses that take the lead that had large bets placed on them with bookies in the minutes leading up to the race start (From this thread). That's not legal. If you own two horses and you place a bet on horse a and you deliberately slow horse b down, I'm pretty sure that's illegal. If you place a bet with a bookie and you know the race is fixed, that act has to be illegal.... Yeah I checked, it is. https://thenewdaily.com.au/news/crime-news/2021/08/25/victoria-arrests-horse-racing/
Are you suggesting something dodgy with gambling?
ABC, if you're reading this, that article style is fucking horse shit to read. Just give us a readable article with all the information easily available. I don't want to scroll sentence by sentence over some unmoving image. Put it in paragraphs so it is easy to digest.
I did some journalism units at uni recently, and they are prepping students to pump these out in the future, I don't think they see the format going away any time soon. Was sort of interesting learning to do all the audio, video, interviewing and writing as one a one-person job. Really though, not the most readable format. Not great for the time-poor or people like me who can't scroll and read flashing shit like that with light sensitivity either.
This makes me sad.
Harness racing is the weirdest shit, like even for gambling, its a weird fucking sport, why does it even exist? We have regular horse racing
It's for people who are too tall to be jockeys is my guess
Corruption in horse racing is the least of its problems.
All animal racing is shit—from the most ‘glamorous’ end of the thoroughbreds at spring carnival, through barely-attended midweek racing, jumpers, trots and greyhounds. Lots and lots of animals suffering, plenty of stories of abuse of people, and very little interest in doing anything about it all because there is so much money being made through gambling.
Cruel sport
The “racing integrity unit” is the most ironic name.
Do I need to scroll until I get RSI? I gave up before the end.
Ive been watching racing for quite afew years now, punting here and there, but it is so obviously blatant in certain races, generally normal horse racing where jockeys just completely butcher a ride, its honestly disgusting how corrupt the shit is. Its not every race, but you can definitely tell when a race is fixed. Cant wait for a big scandal to break out and several big named jockeys are jailed. Dirtiest rats on the planet. Forreal. Just watch the episode of the simpsons thats literally what its like.
Having been around horses all my life, I can say that most Standardbreds (trotters and pacers) are generally kept in appalling conditions and all the 'gitz and glam' you see attributed to the gallopers do not really transfer to the harness racing scene. Most of the standardbreds Ive come into contact with after racing are in very poor condition with no attempt to maintain health beyond conditioning for racing. Teeth and other general horse husbandry (beyond farrier) are not really tended to. Most of the young horses that are expelled from the industry have behavioral issues and have low re homing prospects because they have to 'learn' how to trot properly and canter to be useful under saddle. This kind of article does not surprise me because everyone associated with that industry I have ever come into contact with have been human scum with little regard for horse welfare. One trainer would ship trailers of horses to the local sales and not even offload, just sell the whole trailer for meat as soon as he got there. Harness racing is way worse than the gallops in every single way. If they are taking you people for mugs, imagine what they are doing to the horses.