Anxious wait for owner who laid own horse to boost odds and mitigate losses

An owner who admitted laying his own horse on three occasions will learn his fate later this week, after a disciplinary panel broke up without reaching a verdict following a six-hour hearing on Tuesday.

Rob Drye, described as "a senior and highly respected IT consultant", said he had bet against Near Kettering as a way of propping up its odds and then, during two of the races, laid the horse at odds-on as a means of limiting his losses in the event the horse was pipped close home.

"Technically there was a breach of the rules," said Jeremy Phillips QC, presenting Drye's defence, "and use was made of lay bets but the purpose of that was never to profit from those lay bets. We will be asking the panel to consider whether any penalty is appropriate."