London: Kieren Fallon, the champion jockey, and 15 others were arrested in dawn raids on Wednesday by police investigating corruption in horseracing. Two other jockeys, Fergal Lynch and Darren Williams and a trainer Karl Burke, were among those held, as 130 officers raided 19 addresses across Suffolk, Yorkshire and Hertfordshire. They arrested suspects for conspiracy to defraud. All were released on bail.

Fallon, who has ridden 141 winners this season and is favourite to become champion jockey for the sixth time, was allowed to ride at Salisbury on Thursday as he has not been charged with any criminal offence, the Jockey Club said.

The investigations, led by the City of London police, are into about 80 races that have been allegedly fixed in the past two years.The police inquiry followed an investigation by Paul Scotney, a former detective chief superintendent, who took over as the head of security at the Jockey Club last year.

Nineteen premises were searched and police confiscated many documents and computer files. There may be further arrests and searches.

The alleged corruption is believed to centre on fancied horses being prevented from winning and crooked punters making tens of thousands of pounds by ‘laying’ them to lose on person-to-person betting exchanges.

Betfair, the leading betting exchange, said it had played a key role in helping the police with their investigations.