Tue, November 25, 2025
Jockey Kitts receives nine-year corruption ban
24-year-old jockey Dylan Kitts has received a nine-year corruption ban after he conspired alongside John Higgins, associate of the horse’s owner, to prevent the horse, Hillsin, from achieving its best position in 2023. Higgins is an associate of the horse’s owner, Alan Clegg. Clegg was not found guilty of involvement by the British Horseracing Authority (BHA).
This occurred during the Wacky Weekender Festival Conditional Jockeys’ Handicap Hurdle on July 5, 2023 in Worcester, where Kitts finished third. It was found by the BHA that Kitts intentionally stopped his horse Hillsin. The panel stated he: “holds onto the horse, doesn’t let the horse have its head and holds it back.” Hillsin was banned from competing for 40 days following the event.
However, the BHA also stated that Kitts was “groomed” by Higgins. Kitts stated, under cross-examination from Louis Weston, representing the BHA, that Higgins: “was very firm, abrupt and vigorous. He said under no f****** circumstances was that horse to win; if I had to break my neck to make sure then so be it. As a young adult in a man’s world, I found it very intimidating…
I made one of the biggest mistakes of my life. I made a very poor excuse of him hanging to cover my wrongdoings, which was the wrong thing to do…
I was young, I was panicking, for my career and for my safety.”
Sources state that Kitts received £100 from Higgins’ son-in-law and Burnley football player, Ashley Barnes, to go through with the plan. Higgins had placed a bet on Hillsin. Higgins has been banned from racing for 12 years, and Barnes has also been placed on the BHA’s exclusion list. Both reportedly failed to cooperate in the BHA’s investigation.
Although it was reported in September that Hillsin’s trainer, Chris Honour, encouraged the plan, BBC Sport reported that: “Honour was judged not to be part of the conspiracy but was found to have misled stewards and was fined £750.” Honour had stated to stewards that Kitts said Hillsin was “hanging” in the final stretch, but the panel said this was “deliberately misleading”
The BHA stated: “Running and riding horses to achieve their best possible position is the minimum standard expected of all participants in British racing. It is vital that those engaging with the sport have confidence that what they are seeing unfold on the track is clean and fair.”
