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The Honolulu Advertiser
Posted at 11:48 p.m., Sunday, November 30, 2008

Horse racing: Aussie jockey banned again in tips for bets case

Associated Press

SYDNEY, Australia — Weeks after being released from jail, former Melbourne Cup-winning jockey Chris Munce has been handed another 30-month ban by the Hong Kong Jockey Club.

Munce participated in a hearing via video link Monday from Sydney and was found guilty of additional charges in the "tips for bets" case that had already resulted in him serving 20 months in jail in Hong Kong and Australia.

The latest disqualification was backdated to March 1, 2007, meaning he will be sidelined until next September.

Munce will face a racing tribunal in New South Wales state on Wednesday to show cause why the disqualification should not be enforced in Australia.

He had returned to track work pending the HKJC hearing and was hoping to race again.

"I am shocked and dismayed by the decision," Munce said in a statement Monday. "I have at all times cooperated with stewards, in stark contrast to others who have fled Hong Kong and resumed riding in other parts of the world.

"I acknowledge my breach of Hong Kong racing rules but I have more than paid the price."

Munce has won many of the biggest races on the Australian calendar, including the 1998 Melbourne Cup and the Golden Slipper in '98 and 2004. He was based in Hong Kong when the offenses occurred.

He was initially sentenced to 2-1/2 years in a Hong Kong prison for accepting advantages in return for providing tips to a Hong Kong businessman from December 2005 to May 2006.

Munce was found carrying a betting slip and $32,100 in cash stuffed in his jeans pockets when he was arrested on July 3, 2006, by Hong Kong's anti-graft agency, according to court testimony.

After six months in a Hong Kong jail, he was transferred to a low-security jail in Sydney and released in late October.

In Australia, Munce's offenses would have been dealt with by racing authorities — not the judicial system.