Former jockey Danny Brock was warned off for 15 years by a BHA judicial panel for a series of corrupt rides – in which he stopped horses so that individuals linked to him could profit by thousands of pounds from betting.
Brock, who is no longer licensed, was declared a disqualified person with immediate effect and Sean McBride, son of Newmarket trainer Charlie McBride, was disqualified for seven years at a penalty hearing on Thursday.
Brock, who did not participate in the inquiry, was found guilty on Tuesday of corrupt or fraudulent practices in relation to racing after a December inquiry which focused on nine all-weather races he rode in during 2018 and 2019.
He was alleged to have passed on inside information to four co-defendants about which of his mounts would be ridden to win and which would not.
In one of the races under suspicion, Brock finished second in a two runner race at Southwell on which his co-accused staked significantly large bets on the odds-on favourite Tricky Dicky which beat Brock’s mount Samovar, which was slowly away, by ten lengths.
At the penalty hearing, barrister Louis Weston urged the panel to impose a hefty sentence on Brock, who rode more than 100 winners from 2009 to 2021 and is now a greyhound trainer.
“What purpose does this man serve in the sport,” he said. “He is corrupt. He shouldn’t be in it.”
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Photograph by John Grossick)
Panel chair Tim Charlton KC said written reasons would be issued in “a day or so” as he announced the disqualifications.
McBride, who is assistant trainer at his father’s yard and was said to be a close friend of Brock, was the only individual to engage in the hearing and had denied involvement in corrupt or fraudulent practices.
The others Andrew Perring, Eugene Maloney, and Luke Howells, who faced the same charges, did not attend. Having already been permanently excluded from the sport there was no further penalty that could be imposed, Charlton said.
But he directed that any application to have the exclusions removed should not be entertained for 15 years.
