POOR racing punters were fooled completely after a fake text duped them into backing a horse who proved a total disaster.
A made-up message was forwarded among bettors encouraging them to place cash on little-known Phondle.
The horse ran at Sale racecourse in Australia on Thursday and saw her odds plummet from 18-1 to 2-1 before the off.
That surge of market support came on the back of a widely-shared message that claimed jockey Daniel Moor had told the horse’s owners to hide her from the public.
The hope being they would have no idea how good she really was, keeping her odds high for the race.
The fake text read: “As soon as Moor got off her, [he] went straight to the stable and told them to pull her out of all trials, they didn’t want to ruin her price.”
The message was claimed to be ‘inside info’ from trainers Simon Zahra and Mathew Ellerton.
It finished with the words: “Everyone at the stable have piled in.”
The horse eventually ran out at 9-2 but proved a total flop, finishing second-last of eight despite two other runners being withdrawn falling a mishap in the stalls.
A furious Zahra denied any such conversation over the horse had taken place – and had no idea where the text had originated.
He said Phondle had not been hidden from the public eye at all and that the text’s contents were ‘absolute c**p’.
The fake viral text included a made-up message from jockey Moor
Zahra said: “Daniel has been on her in the two jumpouts we’ve given her, which are both available for everyone to watch on YouTube.
“It [the fake text] is absolute crap is what it is.”
The cash placed on filly Phondle – who had only a 100-1 shot behind her – proved totally misplaced.
She was struggling before the home turn and weakened quickly into the straight, finishing some 11 lengths behind the 3-1 winner Madame Bolli.
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