Fallon held on fraud charge

Britain's champion rider, Kieren Fallon, was one of three jockeys arrested Wednesday in England in a wide police sweep conducted as part of an investigation into race fixing, the BBC has reported.

In addition to Fallon, who leads the British jockey standings this year with 161 victories, jockeys Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams were arrested, along with a North Yorkshire based-trainer, Karl Burke. They were just four of 16 people who were arrested in a sweep that covered North Yorkshire and South Yorkshire in the north of England, Hertfordshire just north of London, and Suffolk, the county that holds the headquarters of British racing, Newmarket, where Fallon was arrested. They were all charged with conspiracy to defraud.

The arrests were made under the auspices of the London police, whose detective chief superintendent, Steve Wilmott, said that massive amounts of information, much of it computer-related, has been gathered.

The investigation is believed to center around the emergence of betting exchanges, in which bettors can not only back horses to win, but can lay odds on them to lose as well.