Ten-year ban for Carter for Blazeofenchanment stopping ride

Former Flat jockey Adam Carter was banned from racing for ten years on Thursday for his part in the corruption case which cleared trainer John Wainwright and professional punter John Wright of involvement.

Carter was found to have carried out "about as blatant an example of a non-trier as one could get" when found guilty of riding the Wainwright-trained Blazeofenchantment other than on its merits at Southwell in June 2014 and passing the information of his plans so it could be used for betting purposes.

A BHA disciplinary panel had given its verdict against Carter in August, finding his friend Paul Bradley and Peter Bennett guilty as well after the information was used to lay the horse, but opted not to impose a sentence until it had considered written submissions.

During the inquiry Carter was labelled an unreliable witness after he had retracted allegations he had made in a statement he provided BHA investigators that he was ordered to stop Blazeofenchantment by Wainwright and Wright claiming he had been "brainwashed".

Carter rode 52 winners over 11 seasons but told the hearing he was out of racing and had a job changing coinboxes at Tesco stores around Manchester.

In its ruling the panel said it could find "no mitigating features of Mr Carter’s behaviour".

John Wainwright: 'I've been not guilty all the way through but it's something I don't what to happen again'Credit: John Grossick

"While it was not possible to say on the evidence available who might have caused or required him to stop the horse, there was no hint that he was under pressure from an unidentified source to do this," it said.

"There were two aggravating aspects of his conduct. Firstly, there was the extraordinary series of changes of story that he has given over the years.

"Secondly, there was the fact that he chose to initiate a route to profit [or perhaps additional profit] from his intended stopping ride by passing information to Mr Bradley that led in turn to Mr Bennett’s lay betting.

"In the circumstances, the panel decided to impose a disqualification of 10 years from 19 October 2017 until 18 October 2027 inclusive."

Bradley, also a former jockey who works for Tim Easterby, had admitted receiving information from Carter and passing it to Bennett but did not attend the hearing.

The panel said Bradley was likely to have benefited little from Bennett's betting and in acknowledgement of his guilty plea imposed a disqualification of two years six months.

Bennett, who won £2,000 from his lay bet, also did not take part in the hearing having claimed he had no case to answer. Though unlicensed he was excluded for four years.

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