Parkin released on bail in race-fixing probe
The journeyman rider, who was 32 yesterday, was arrested in the Scarborough area early yesterday morning on suspicion of conspiracy to defraud.
Parkin spent the day being questioned at a local police station before being released.
A police spokesman confirmed: “He has just been bailed to appear in May.”
Parkin’s agent Richard Hale said earlier: “I haven’t spoken to Gyles, but he hasn’t been riding for a while as his shoulder has been bothering him. He was preparing for the coming season.”
Parkin rode his first winner on the Nicky Henderson-trained Class Act at Catterick in 1990 and went on from there to strike up associations with both Mick and Tim Easterby.
It was the latter trainer who gave him his biggest career success when Bollin Joanne lifted the Coral Sprint Trophy at York in 1996.
Parkin was sidelined for nearly a year, though, after being knocked out in a fall at Beverley in June 2002.
The jockey suffered a compressed vertebra in his neck and a swollen spine, which left him with virtually no power in his left arm.
However, he made a successful return to the East Yorkshire track in May 2003, when he rode a 50-1 winner.
He has struggled to regain momentum in his career and he rode 11 winners from 177 mounts last season.
Parkin’s arrest took the number of people who have been arrested and bailed in the investigation to 27.
Sixteen people, including former champion jockey Kieren Fallon, colleagues Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams, and trainer Karl Burke, were arrested and bailed last September.
A further six people were picked up in October, and in December trainer Alan Berry, jockey Paul Bradley and farrier Steve O’Sullivan were added to the list.
Robert Winston then became the fifth jockey to be arrested and bailed at the beginning of last month.
Fallon has said he was questioned about his involvement with Miles Rodgers, formerly a director of the Platinum Racing Club syndicate.
Rodgers was warned off for two years by the Jockey Club last March after he was found to have laid two of his syndicate’s horses to lose on betting exchange Betfair.
He has since described the Jockey Club ruling as “a travesty” and denies wrongdoing.
During the investigation into alleged race-fixing, more than 130 police previously raided 19 addresses across Suffolk, North Yorkshire, South Yorkshire and Hertfordshire.
Police are analysing more than 1,000 exhibits, including phones and computers.
The inquiry is examining allegations of fixing involving more than 80 races over the last two years.
