And they're off!

Three former frat brothers devised a high-tech scheme to win $3 million at the Breeders' Cup. Here's how they did it and how investigators quickly caught them.

Owners of racing horses and bettors all know that before the track announcer shouts, "And they're off!" that all wagering has ceased for that race. However, some of our older readers might recall the 1973 Academy Award-winning movie "The Sting" with Paul Newman and Robert Redford. The main characters set up a phony off-track betting (OTB) parlor to convince a "mark" they could delay the horse racing results long enough to place a wager before those results would be communicated over the telegraph wire. The movie was based on a scam, known as "the wire," perpetrated by Charley and Fred Gondroff on an Englishman in New York City in 1914. (See "The Big Con," by David W. Mauer.)

Three former frat brothers kept the scam alive by using 21st-century technology to outsmart the system and steal $3 million in winnings from the 2002 Breeders' Cup World Thoroughbred Championships races. We'll describe how the fraudsters pulled it off, and how investigators quickly caught them.

OLYMPICS OF THOROUGHBRED RACING