Harness races in Southern California are regularly...

Harness races in Southern California are regularly “fixed” by drivers who purposely lose while betting on other horses, the Los Angeles Herald Examiner has reported.

The problem is reportedly serious enough that four Las Vegas betting parlors handling sporting events nationwide quit taking bets on California harness races last year.

The newspaper’s investigation was based on interviews with 76 people in the industry, one-third of whom said they knew of races that were fixed.

“From all the information I get, there’s no question that’s what’s going on,” said Raymond Seeley, a current member and former chairman of the California Horse Racing Board. “We’ve had way too much of a problem with harness racing in every respect.”

Rigging races is most common at Fairplex Park in Pomona and at Los Alamitos, said the newspaper, which called Cal-Expo at Sacramento the state’s cleanest harness track.

According to harness drivers and others quoted anonymously, the most common way drivers cheat is to bet on another horse while holding theirs back from a full effort. Others will hold a good horse back for several races to boost the odds, then bet on their own horse and run a strong race, the paper said.