The rules of racing are bamboozling me. A stable lad gets banned from the industry for two years for passing on racing tips to a bookie. Such a dastardly act has only happened about a dozen times in the history of racing. What’s more, the situation is so obviously different from a famous trainer having a racing column or a jockey being sponsored by a bookie, presumably because the financial relationship is entirely one-sided, and the sponsor expects nothing.
Graham Baines raked in £1,950 over two years (technically less than £20 per week) and, as a result, has lost his employment and has now been excluded from his profession for two years. Meanwhile, the three “gents” who actually bought and exploited his information have been granted anonymity. WHY???? Measured against the BHA’s own guidelines for punishments, it could be argued that
