Andrew Rule: Underworld bait that lured Les Samba to his death
IN the underworld, to be owed money can be more dangerous than to owe it. Did the promise of a $3 million deal lure Les Samba to his death in Middle Park? LISTEN TO THE LATEST ANDREW RULE PODCAST
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IN the underworld, to be owed money can be more dangerous than to owe it.
The diligent but so far unsuccessful efforts of police to arrest the conspirators who killed Les Samba will no doubt have looked into whether he was owed a fortune, or had borrowed one.
This is easier said than done, given that the late Samba — nightclub doorman turned strapper turned racehorse nobbler turned “plunge” trainer turned interstate man of mystery — apparently also turned over buckets of cash without bothering banks or tax authorities.
No surprises there, given he had worked in the Adelaide end of the shadowy empire run by the late Abe “Mr Sin” Saffron, Australia’s answer to Meyer Lansky.
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Samba, by way of background, was denied a permanent NSW horse trainer’s licence for years because of his underworld links.
One such link was Peter “The Black Prince” Farrugia, alias Farr, who was shot dead in Queensland in 1992 by an estate agent, later acquitted on grounds of self-defence.
Samba’s associate had arrived with two Sydney hoodlums to stand over the estate agent, but he produced a gun before they did. Samba clearly did not learn from his mate’s mistake.
The reason crooks like Samba and Farrugia were tolerated in racing, as one wise racing writer noted, was that “they paid”. In an industry in which the best reference is settling, they ponied up money to trainers, bookmakers and jockeys.
Samba’s long association with organised crime and underworld figures certainly wasn’t held against his family.
In a brave show of “don’t blame the child for its father”, the then Racing Victoria brains trust hired Samba’s beautiful daughter Victoria as an “ambassador” for Melbourne racing in 2005.
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This was just before Victoria (the model, not the state) made the mistake of marrying Danny Nikolic, possibly the prettiest jockey in Victoria (the state, not the model) before Katelyn Mallyon appeared. But the angelic-looking Nikolic was no angel, it turns out, as proven by his ugly clashes with the law and racing stewards.
Within three years, racing’s cutest couple had split and Victoria had filed for divorce, which must have made her father’s business trips to Melbourne rather interesting.
On one previous occasion, he had sat in a Port Melbourne hotel room counting out hundreds of thousands of dollars, stacking bundles of cash on a coffee table until it was covered.
Where the money came from — or where it went — are questions that, if answered, might throw light on the charming grandfather’s sudden death in Beaconsfield Parade, Middle Park, in February 2011.
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Maybe he had originally wanted to invest black money in semi-legitimate “fronts”. Then maybe things changed and he decided he wanted his money back — a potentially fatal decision.
Police have been told Samba was lured from Adelaide that weekend with the promise of a lucrative commission on a $3 million racehorse deal, supposedly from a rich Malaysian businessman wanting him to select and buy horses at the Inglis yearling sales starting next day.
It would only be the lure of money that would make someone so streetwise agree to a meeting alone at night. He apparently took a call from someone he knew and went to Middle Park after a drink with friends at Crown. There are plenty of rumours about the identity of the long-haired (or wig-wearing) gunman who shot him and vanished on foot as assuredly as someone who knew the district.
The rumours haven’t helped the police solve it. Neither have they helped Danny Nikolic get back into the only profession he really knows — riding racehorses — after being refused a licence following his two-year “holiday” for abusing and threatening Victoria’s chief steward Terry Bailey in 2012.
An ugly scene at Seymour races followed mounting pressure on Nikolic over a previous race-fixing inquiry. He was also convicted of assaulting fellow jockey Mark Pegus and police officer Julio Salerno, not to mention breaching AVOs against his ex-wife and her family.
The gifted jockey has denied any connection with his former father-in-law’s murder, and with the shooting-up of Bailey’s front door on the eve of the 2015 Melbourne Cup. But his short fuse has done him no favours in his attempts to be relicensed.
Neither does the company he keeps. The latest report, that he is living in a Sydney penthouse with suspected match-fixer and former brothel owner “Fast Eddie” Hayson must worry those who want him to make a track comeback.
He is, after all, the only jockey to be excluded under the special powers of Victoria’s police chief from attending Victorian racetracks or Crown casino. Being outed as Hayson’s sidekick won’t help that.
Hayson is a bit too “hot” even in Sin City, where the euphemism “colourful racing identity” was coined to meet the market.
John “The Sheriff” Schreck, the Australian Jockey Club’s chief steward in its turbulent 1980s, said of racing: “It is about the only business that attracts high-class businessmen, politicians, prostitutes and pimps, and they all congregate together every Saturday.”
Hayson reputedly has links with former Comanchero president Mark Buddle. He has borrowed and punted millions of dollars — a high-risk strategy that reportedly led to him being kidnapped to ensure he pays his debts. Authorities monitor his betting as he is seen as a threat to racing and sports integrity.
Hayson hit the headlines in 2016 over untested and vehemently-denied claims that he fixed two NRL games in 2015. He said suggestions he’d bribed six Manly players to throw a match were ridiculous because the players were “so square they wouldn’t even cheat on their girlfriends”.
This was interesting given his claim another time that he had provided free sex for NRL players and jockeys (and had hosted judges and police) at his brothel, Stiletto. He specifically denied doing this to gain leverage over the rugby league players, which must have left the police, judges and jockeys wondering if he was going to put the hard word on them instead.
“Fast Eddie” has since sold the brothel, but there is no evidence he has given up the punting life.
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