Police are investigating a string of top Australian horse racing figures, including champion jockey Danny Nikolic, for alleged race fixing, in what is shaping up as the biggest corruption scandal to hit the sport in decades.
In a joint investigation with The Age, the ABC's Four Corners program can reveal Nikolic, at least one other leading jockey, a former trainer and several other well-known racing identities across Australia are under investigation by Victorian organised crime detectives for allegedly conspiring to fix the outcome of a race last year.
Detective Superintendent Gerard Ryan confirmed that police are investigating race fixing in Victoria involving a horse called Smoking Aces in 2011.
The suspected race fix was uncovered during the murder probe into former trainer Les Samba's murder, and is understood to have yielded participants a total of up to $200,000 in betting returns.
The ABC can also reveal that police will today announce a $1 million reward for information leading to the arrest of Samba's killers.
"Certainly, I believe that if we we're able to solve the race fixing and solve the issues that that are emerging, we will certainly solve the murder," Detective Superintendent Ryan said in an exclusive interview.
Other corruption issues tied to racing across Australia are also understood to be under scrutiny as a result of inquiries into Samba's death in February 2011.
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