Eddie Ahern. Ten Year Ban
Given that he had just been found guilty of the most serious offence any jockey can commit, Eddie Ahern did not struggle for support last week after he was banned for 10 years by the British Horseracing Authority for deliberately stopping a horse in a race at Lingfield Park.
First from the stalls was the Professional Jockeys Association, with Paul Struthers, its chief executive, widely quoted as saying that while the PJA “agrees that corrupt conduct cannot be tolerated within a sport where integrity is absolutely vital”, Ahern “is adamant that he is not guilty of the corrupt [sic] charges found against him”.
Hayley Turner, meanwhile, seemed to sum up the mood in the weighing room in her column on Racing UK’s website. “Eddie has obviously made a massive mistake and one which he has quite rightly paid dearly for,” Turner said, “but it is hard to feel any anger towards him because – take away what happened – and he is a nice guy and one of the most popular guys in the weighing room.”
Ahern has lodged an appeal against both the BHA disciplinary panel’s finding in the case and the penalty it imposed as a result, which was two years more than the “entry point” ban for deliberately preventing a horse from running on its merits. He may stand some chance when it comes to the penalty, although many punters would take the view that a life ban with no chance of a return to race-riding is the only appropriate penalty for stopping a horse.
In terms of the panel’s finding, though, and Ahern’s insistence that he is not guilty, what, exactly, is “one of the most popular guys in the weighing room” asking us to believe?
The ride at the centre of the case was on a horse called Judgethemoment, in a two-mile race at Lingfield. Ahern was slowly away from the stalls, but then charged into a huge lead while stoking his partner along as if the race was a sprint. No racehorse in history could sustain such a pace for two miles, never mind a 65-rated handicapper. Judgethemoment started to tie up with well over half a mile to run, and soon dropped back through the field to finish a distant last of the seven runners.
Ahern’s case is that while he concedes the ride was extremely poor, it was not corrupt. Jockeys are human and can make mistakes, just as the best strikers can occasionally miss the most open of goals. The problem, however, is the evidence supplied by betting firms, because Ahern will need to persuade the appeal panel that it was, in effect, just a bizarre coincidence that this particular ride coincided with his good friend Neil Clement placing one of the largest bets of his life against Judgethemoment.
In all, Clement placed 11 bets with a spread-betting firm called Star Spreads in a little over three months, but the bet against Judgethemoment – which won him £8,500 while risking a maximum loss, had Judgethemoment won the race, of £41,500 – was bigger than the other 10 put together. Clement was banned for 15 years by the panel, and is not expected to lodge an appeal.
The panel does not need a case to be proved beyond reasonable doubt, and makes its decisions according to the balance of probability. Ahern’s inept ride and Clement’s immense bet might not, if viewed in isolation, swing the balance against them. In conjunction, however, the chance that Clement, by coincidence, could have taken such a strong view against Judgethemoment on the exact afternoon, and in the precise contest, when Ahern rode possibly the worst race of his life, is tiny.
For a man who acquired the nickname “Betfair Eddie” from his weighing-room colleagues not long after the exchange matched its first bet, Ahern’s grasp of basic probability does not seem too strong. Popular with his colleagues though he certainly is, Ahern’s ride on Judgethemoment was disgraceful and for a jockey of his standing and experience, a 10-year suspension seems perfectly fair.
www.guardian.co.uk
