Owner Stephen Arnold has been disqualified for three months after admitting to breaching the rules in relation to laying 10 of his horses, the British Horseracing Authority has said.
Arnold, whose horses run under the moniker of Rakebackmypoker.com, was called before a disciplinary panel of the BHA charged with 10 counts of laying his horses to lose, involving races between June 2012 and March this year.
The panel considered whether Arnold acted in breach of Rule (E) 92.2 in that he placed lay bets and/or instructed another person to do so on his behalf and/or received the whole or part of the proceeds of such an act at a time when he was the owner of the horses in question.
A tweet from the BHA read: “Registered owner Stephen Arnold has been disqualified for three months after admitting to breaches of Rule (E) 92.2 on 10 counts.
“The disqualification begins as of tomorrow. The disciplinary panel’s reasons will follow in due course.”
Speaking to At The Races last month, Arnold insisted he had not been aiming to profit from horses getting beat, saying: “If I go by their idea of laying then I’m guilty, obviously.
“But at no stage was I aiming to profit from any horse getting beat, all I was trying to do was prevent horses crashing for 4 or 5 on a morning on Betfair until we could get a reasonable bet on a horse with bookmakers.”