The BHA and the Police

[NoChanceToDance]

The police say they managed to obtain "significant" ecivdence and intelligence for this case.

They are "disappointed" with the judges decision, but "understand" his reasoning. They were disappointed the jury never got the chance to make thier decision after failing to be allowed to see all of the "compelling" evidence that the Police had.

I'm still not really sure what to say on this case.

There is plenty of evidence to suggest that the people in question did know eachother very well, even when they say they didn't. Phone numbers, text messages, bank account details. So, although they obviously haven't spoken the whole truth in court, the evidence hasn't been strong enough to convict them of any crimes.

The text messages could have read in so many different ways, but the general opinion is that they were incriminating, but because of how they were written (in sort of code) no one apart from the people who sent and recieved them could be 100% sure of what they actually meant.

I have to say that although this case has been thrown out of court, it does NOT prove these people are innocent.

The Ballinger Ridge incident will remain a mystery. The betting patterns that surrounded that horse from the time the market for that race opened are still in question, but whether Fallon's ride had anything to do with those patterns are anyone's guess. Maybe it was just a massive coincidence?

The Police are very much to blame in my opinion. From the moment the case started, it didn't seem like any of the officers involved had any clue about Horse Racing. That was the major downfall.

I find it interesting that Fallon has been given his license back straight away, even though he admitted to breaking many rules set by the BHA. This sets a huge precident to other jockeys. Fallon has basically been let off after using mobile phones in restricted areas, having mobile phones that were not known to the BHA and also discussing private information to people he shouldn't have been speaking to. Lets not forget that other jockeys including Robert Winston and Tony Culhane have been banned for less.

Does this mean that if any jockey is found to be using his/her mobile phone in a restricted area that they will just have to say "well, you let Fallon off, why not me?".

The BHA have basically made a complete mess.

I have to apologise to Brockguy on here after laughing off the post he made about Scotney being out to get Fallon. After today, that could very well be the case.

They seem to have no idea what they have done and how this could affect British racing.

There will be those who will be over the moon that Fallon is now able to walk free, but this goes MUCH deeper than that and those people must understand that. Every jockey in this case now has the right to sue the authorities for loss of income, which will amount to huge sums of money, money which the racing authorities just do not have. This will hurt racing in more ways than people are expecting it to. Money is already an issue in this sport, without the threat of huge amounts of compensation for these jockeys, and the possible percentage of funding for the court case itself (thought to be around £6million).

Then there is the issue of trust. Why should anyone involved in racing trust any BHA decision ever again after this disgrace? Jockeys certainly won't trust anything they say or do.

Tough times for racing at the moment.

Sure, it's brilliant news that Fallon has been allowed to walk free, but i'm looking at the bigger picture and what this could actually do to British racing after the dust settles.

[brockguy]

it shouldnt have been allowed go to court in the first place. as the trail progressed, it looked more and more like a shoddy operation on the prosecutions part.

the text messages (that contained numerous abbreviations that could be interpreted in any number of ways) seemed to be a massive part of the prosecutions trial which in the end was shocking..

it'll be interesting to see the huge fallout of this in the coming days and months.

[brockguy]

also, they get a random Australian steward to agree with their point of view regarding race riding.. Just ridiculous considering how different UK and Aussie racing is.

[NoChanceToDance]

I agree with both posts.

In the first couple of days, the evidence looked strong, but then after there were so many holes that could be seen.

The BHA have been made to look completely stupid, and the Police inept.

A HUGE waste of tax payers money, anything up to £10million is now being said.

I do wonder about the text messages, i think most people think they did hide incriminating evidence, but as you say, nothing could be proved.

I'm just not sure how jockeys, trainers or even owners will be able to trust any decisions the BHA make in future.