Key facts
- Six horses with recent workouts at Maryland's Fair Hill Training Center showed dramatic improvements in races across multiple US tracks.
- Two trainers, Angel Quiroz and Ernesto Ochoa, had limited success prior to these races.
- Bets placed with UK bookmakers on these horses reportedly resulted in a six-figure payout.
- The US Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (Hisa) is investigating the unusual performances.
- Some horses linked to the operation were scratched or placed on veterinary lists following the investigations.
Horse racing is grappling with a suspected betting coup, dubbed the 'Fair Hill Five,' following a series of unexpected victories by longshot horses with common training links. The coordinated effort involved at least six horses, many returning from lengthy layoffs, who dramatically outperformed their past performances and public odds on a single Sunday.
At Monmouth Park in New Jersey, The Great Amira, a 17-1 outsider, won wire-to-wire, followed by another winner, Tepeyac, trained by the same individual, Angel Quiroz. The combined payout for picking both horses in a Daily Double was unusually low, suggesting the combination had been heavily backed. Later that day, two more longshot winners emerged at Saratoga, also linked to the Fair Hill Training Center in Maryland. Subsequent reports indicated that bets placed with UK bookmakers on these horses may have exposed British bookmakers to as much as £800,000 ($1.1 million).
Trainers Angel Quiroz and Ernesto Ochoa, whose horses were involved, had limited success prior to these races. Quiroz had only two wins on the year, and Ochoa also had just two victories. The horses involved had a combined record of 16 finishes outside the top three in their previous 17 races. Despite the unusual circumstances, no evidence of doping or race-fixing has been presented, and the investigation is exploring whether this was exceptionally sharp betting or something more illicit.
Further complicating the situation, a sixth horse, Winston Wolf, finished second at Colonial Downs after working out at Fair Hill and being linked to Quiroz. Another horse, Threedots Andadash, was scratched from a race at Presque Isle Downs and placed on the vet's list after Hisa launched its investigation. Similarly, Bravo Rough was scratched from a race at Mountaineer Park. The US Horseracing Integrity and Safety Authority (Hisa), along with the Fair Hill Training Center and the Horseracing Integrity and Welfare Unit (HIWU), are investigating the matter.