Harness Racing: Justin Abbott cheated and must be banned, writes Robert Craddock

STEVE McQueen starred in a movie called The Great Escape. Trainer Justin Abbott should star in The Greatest Escape, writes Robert Craddock.

RB90328 (28apr06PL) The Redcliffe Harness Racing Club celebrates its 50th anniversary on Wednesday.

FIFTY years ago Steve McQueen starred in a movie called The Great Escape.

As great as it was, it could not be called The Greatest Escape, because we have just seen one better.

Queensland harness racing trainer Justin Abbott has that title after somehow having a five-year disqualification quashed after backing his horses to lose on Betfair.

Compared to Abbott’s escape, McQueen is still trapped in a tiny tunnel scratching away with a bucket in his hand.

Abbott laid his horses to lose on Betfair in February and March this year. If they lost (which they did), he won.

There are no grey areas in this story. Abbott pleaded guilty. He cheated.

As far as challenging the rules and spirit of racing, you could hardly be more brazen.

Actions like this that convince people that the slang term for the harness racing industry — the red hots — is well deserved.

Actor Steve McQueen in the famous motorbike scene from film "The Great Escape". Queensland harness racing trainer Justin Abbott deserves to star in “The Greatest Escape”.

Somehow, breathtakingly, the Queensland Racing Disciplinary Board saw fit to knock down the five-year penalty to a time-already-served — nine months.

Extraordinary.

The bell-ringer was this quote from RDB chairman Brock Miller, which I had to read three times just to make sure is was as ridiculous as I thought it was the first time I saw it: “There is nothing to support the contention that the trainer has behaved in a way which was prejudicial or indeed detrimental to the industry,’’ he said.

That will do me.

If there has been a more nonsensical quote uttered by a racing official, it has slipped past me.

A trainer has backed his horses to lose but, according to Miller, has not behaved in a manner detrimental to the industry.

It would be interesting to know what Miller considers conduct detrimental to the industry.

Setting Albion Park on fire? Stealing a chilli sauce bowl from the nearby Breakfast Creek Hotel and sticking it up the horse’s nose?

The Abbott decision is so ridiculous it is almost funny.

But don’t laugh too loud.

In the end, the joke is on you and me and anyone who has a bet on a horse with good faith that the trainer has prepared it to win the race.

Originally published as Harness Racing: Justin Abbott cheated and must be banned, writes Robert Craddock