Racehorse threatened with death for taking part in a race.

Behind the scenes at last year’s King George VI and Queen Elizabeth Stakes  a horse was being threatened with death for even participating in the race. The horse in question was the hot favourite for the Ascot race “Conduit” trained by Sir Michael Stoute and ridden by Ryan Moore and did eventually win the race. The source of the threat was a certain Mr Andrew Rodgerson who worked in a travel agent but was involved in gambling by finding the best odds for a syndicate and placing the bets for them. It was not unusual for him to place several bets per day of several hundred pounds. On this occasion he was supposed to have placed an accumulator bet but he forgot and to his horror all the other horses in the bet had come in leaving only Conduit and he that one won he would owe the syndicate around £55000. He therefore took the unusual step of threatening the Irish owners of the horse, the Ballymacoll Stud Farm with the horses death should it take part. He sent a text message to the General Manager of the firm Mr Peter Reynolds saying “Dear Peter, we would just like to warn you that should Conduit run in the King George then the horse will be killed”. Five days later he e-mailed M Reynolds with the words “Dear Peter, I don’t believe you are taking the threat of death to Conduit very seriously. We want the horse removed from the King George this weekend. If you cooperate the horse will live”. Unfortunately Mr Rodgerson used both his own mobile to send the text and his own computer to send the e-mail making it very easy to trace. Bolton Crown Court sentenced him to 34 weeks in prison suspended for two years.

We actively encourage our readers to open accounts with several of our recommended bookmakers in order to find the best odds but placing bets on behalf of others is not a good idea and can in tears as in this case; get your mates to open their own accounts.