Flip through the latest issue of Gulf Weekly.
As long as sport has been competitive there has always been money involved ... which in turn has attracted members of the less scrupulous parts of society attempting to make an edge and profit financially.
Recently, soccer has been under the spotlight with London's Metropolitan Police carrying out dawn raids arresting five prominent figures of the football community including England manager-hopeful Harry Redknapp. Prior to that it was tennis and the alleged game fixing.
However, overshadowing all of these has been the legal case against six men involved with fixing horse races - and the reason it has been so high profile is because of one man - six times Champion Jockey Kieran Fallon.
Thirteen jockeys have lost their riding licence over the past few years after being found guilty of fixing races for profit but none of these hit the headlines so the Fallon factor is certainly the main reason it has been front and back page news in the UK.
The case surrounded the alleged fixing of 27 races in order for the mounts of Fallon and fellow riders to lose and thus defraud the participants of Gambling Exchange Betfair. However, many of these races were won by the horse supposedly to lose and Fallon himself had a better record in the races concerned than his general race-to-win ratio.
This was not the biggest flaw though in the case. That was down to the use of Australian chief steward, Ray Murrihy. The problem was, as Murrihy admitted at the Old Bailey, he was not an expert on British horse racing. This was a devastating blow to the prosecution and the case collapsed almost immediately.
In the aftermath the police have been adamant that the case was a good one and they have no regrets which leads us to wonder what kind of case would lead them to have regrets. The British Horse Racing Board, meanwhile, have been suitably silent on the matter, happy I assume to let the police take the blame for this multi-million pound disaster.
They are the ones though who started the process off and led the Met to Murrihy as the star witness because they obviously could not get any British expert to provide the evidence they so badly wanted. Even worse, as we found out in November, Jim McGrath, Channel Four racing pundit, had viewed the races as perfectly sound only for the detectives to fail to present this to the defence.
From the very beginning this case was flawed and without a 'Smoking Gun', as football authorities have found out, these prosecutions are notoriously difficult to prove and it is likely that it will be a long time before anyone ventures to do it again.
This left an emotional Fallon walking free after two years on the sideline and all the money in fees and prize money he was denied - further legal compensation battles are likely to follow.
However, no sooner had he left the Old Bailey he was involved in another scandal as he was named as having failed a second drugs test in France. The racing authorities are waiting for confirmation of the B Sample and should this prove positive for cocaine then it is likely he will have to serve out an 18-month ban.
Fallon's career has been as successful as any jockey before him and he is considered one of the great horsemen of all time. His record speaks for itself. Six times Champion Jockey, sixteen English Classics and two Prix de L'Arc de Triomphes speaks for itself but he has had his demons also.
A self confessed drinker, albeit saying he was a 'serious social drinker' rather than an alcoholic has dogged his career and a bitter falling out with popular trainer Henry Cecil led to him being cast as racing's 'enfant terrible'. His ability to get involved with the wrong kind of people is summed up when he shared his thought that if there was a room of 50 people he would find the two bad ones.
How his employers at the powerful Coolmore Stud in Ireland will view this latest alleged indiscretion we will have to wait and see but considering they have stuck by him throughout this latest trial he may find their patience truly tested this time.
Of all the protagonists in this unsightly affair it is Fallon though who is likely to come out of it in the long run with his legacy in tact.
The police and the horseracing board are seen again as being incompetent and this will tarnish them for some time to come.
Fallon, meanwhile, as with his fellow sporting idols such as George Best or Lester Piggot will be loved and loathed in equal measure but the race-going public will always consider their sport a poorer place for his absence.This has always been one of the major benefits of being a genius.
