Newmarket trainer and staff member found in breach of betting rules three and a half years after Leicester race

A former Newmarket trainer and a member of his staff have been found in breach of the sport's rules on betting, three and a half years after the event.

Verdicts against Luke McJannet and Ivor Collier were reached on Wednesday evening after a three-day hearing in relation to the defeat of Act Of Magic at Leicester on June 30, 2020, when the horse finished seventh in a ten-runner mile handicap after drifting from 9-2 to 7-1.

Evidence heard on Wednesday centred on a two-minute phone conversation between the pair. The BHA's barrister, Louis Weston, said betting evidence showed that immediately after the call, Collier deposited £600 with a betting firm and used all of it to lay Act Of Magic for a place, the first lay bet he had ever struck.

Asked about the coincidence in timing of the phone call and Collier's betting, McJannet initially said he spoke to Collier by phone many times each day but then accepted Collier told him he had backed Act Of Magic. McJannet then told Collier that, according to jockey Kieran O'Neill, Act Of Magic was "a f****** pig", albeit he was capable of winning if in the mood.

"Do you accept that's encouraging him to lay bet?" Weston asked McJannet. "You're telling him the horse has no chance."

"I didn't say he had no chance," McJannet replied. "I said he was a pig." He added that Collier's response was along the lines of: "I may as well f****** lay him, then."

The BHA argued that McJannet had arranged for Collier and another to lay the horse on his behalf, but the disciplinary panel felt this was not borne out by the available evidence. Instead, it found McJannet in breach of the rules against sharing inside information and of encouraging another person (Collier) to place a bet in contravention of the rules.

Collier was found in breach, having bet against a runner from a stable at which he was employed. He and McJannet will learn what punishment they must face at a hearing in a fortnight. Both men are at risk of lengthy banning orders from the sport.

McJannet trained 22 winners over five seasons from a stable in Newmarket. He had his final runners in June 2021.

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