Ararat inquiry today

Press, 10 May 1982, Page 35

Ararat inquiry today

NZPA staff correspondent Sydney The Victoria Racing Club will begin hearing evidence today into the charges laid in the Ararat Cup inquiry. The people charged, including the expatriate New Zealand jockey, Bob Skelton, and the trainer, Wayne Walters, face 39 counts involving race-fixing at three country meetings. The charges relate to the • running of the Ararat Cup on November 27. 1981, the Seppelts Great ■ Western Cham--pagne Stakes, at Wangarratta, on November 20, and the Northwood Park Stakes, at Seymour, on September 9. Walters faces eight charges; Skelton six; the jockey, Rod Dawkins, six; the jockey, Dale Broadfoot, five; the jockeys, Gerald Ryan and Steve Ridler, three each; the bookmaker, Brian Mann, and Alan Jogensen, Barry Long, and Geoff Salter, three of the

five owners of Al’s Gamble, two each.

Among the charges against Skelton, Australia's premier long-distance rider, is that of improper, dishonest, corrupt, and fraudulent practice and also another of corruptly offering to accept and of corruptly accepting money from Dawkins for having given' Gary Bruce (the winner of the Ararat Cup) an unfair advantage in the running of the race. Skelton has also been charged with giving false and misleading evidence. Among the charges against Walters, the trainer of Gary Bruce, is that he corruptly offered and gave sums of money to riders of other horses competing in the Ararat Cup. Walters said after the opening of the hearing in Melbourne on April 23 that he would plead not guilty to all the charges.