Sydney punter found guilty in betting scandal

[Betfair]

Australia: Professional Sydney punter Steve Fletcher has been found guilty of involvement in Queensland's Bold Glance betting scandal.

At the inquiry in Brisbane on Wednesday, Racing Queensland stewards found Fletcher was a party to jockey Bobby El-Issa not allowing Bold Glance to run on his merits when second in a race at Eagle Farm on February 26.

They said Fletcher was a significant financial beneficiary after backing the winner Essington and laying Bold Glance on Betfair on the basis of information from El-Issa that Bold Glance would not try to defeat Essington.

Under the rules of racing Fletcher could be warned off racecourses and also barred from placing bets online operators such as Betfair.
El-Issa is awaiting an appeal over the two-year ban he received for not allowing Bold Glance the best chance to win and not riding him out with any vigour over the last 200 metres of the race.
Stewards found Fletcher and El-Issa were close associates and the former was aware of El-Issa's intention that he not run Bold Glance on its merits.

They also found that Fletcher in turn made El-Issa aware of his intention to back Essington and lay Bold Glance.

A statement from the stewards said they gave "careful consideration to the explanation of Mr Fletcher in respect to the correlation identified by Betfair between Mr Fletcher's lay bets and jockey El-Issasrides.

"In the stewards' opinion, the Betfair evidence leads to a strong inference that Mr Fletcher is in receipt of information from jockey El-Issa as to the prospects of specific mounts and, in particular, that he had the benefit of information from jockey El-Issa that Bold Glance would not try to defeat Essington."

They found there was no similar correlation between Fletcher's betting and any other rider's mounts despite Fletcher stating in evidence that he bets similarly in respect of several other riders who present the same attraction to him as follows.

They have asked for submissions on penalty from Fletcher.
Bold Glance was ridden by Scott Seamer to a gallant third in the Aus$2 million Doncaster Mile at Randwick last Saturday.

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