Mystery call could hold the key to solving the murder of racing trainer Les Samba
MYSTERY calls made from a Melbourne pay phone to slain racehorse trainer Les Samba could hold the key to solving his murder.
The calls, made the morning before Mr Samba was gunned down in Middle Park in 2011, are a key element of the inquiry into the murder.
The Sunday Herald Sun has been told the calls were made on the morning of February 26 when Mr Samba was in Melbourne for the Inglis yearling sales.
They were traced by investigators to a Telstra public phone at a post office in Melbourne’s inner southern suburbs.
The next night, Mr Samba travelled from his room at the Crown Metropol hotel to meet somebody at Middle Park.
The calls would have raised the suspicion someone wanted to conceal their contact with Mr Samba just a day before he died.
Answers to why Mr Samba made the later trip to Middle Park and who he was there to meet are another vital aspect of the inquiry.
He was gunned down before horrified witnesses on Beaconsfield Pde.
Mr Samba’s daughter, Victoria, said she had not given up on finding out who killed her father.
“I miss my Dad terribly but I can’t change what’s happened,’’ she said.
“I want it to be solved but I am getting on with my life. I’m focused on my three kids and my husband but I’m not going to give up on this.
“I’m going to keep asking questions. I just want to know why Dad was in Beaconsfield Pde that night. I still don’t know after almost four years.’’
The former spring carnival racing ambassador also does not believe race-fixing was a factor in her father’s death, which occurred months before the controversial Smoking Aces victory at Cranbourne the following April.
Victoria’s former husband, banned top jockey Danny Nikolic, who was aboard Smoking Aces, became embroiled in the scandal sparked by information gathered by homicide squad detectives investigating her father’s killing.
A $1 million reward remains in place for anyone able to help solve the killing, which is being investigated by organised crime detectives from the Purana taskforce.
Victoria Police declined to comment on the pay phone calls lead.
The phone calls add another layer of mystery to what happened on the final weekend of Mr Samba’s life.
The Sunday Herald Sun revealed in December Mr Samba believed he was going to make big money at the Inglis sales. A close friend of the trainer said Mr Samba falsely believed he was going to pocket $150,000 for buying $3 million in racehorses on behalf of wealthy Malaysian businessmen.
Investigators are understood to have never located the Malaysians and there are questions about whether they ever existed.
Daughter is still searching for answers three years on
LES Samba underestimated the men who would call time on his life.
Walking from the Crown Metropol Hotel in the city’s casino precinct, there seemed to be no trepidation as he headed to Middle Park — among the city’s most expensive beach-side suburbs.
There was certainly nothing to suggest he felt his life was on the line, even though a meeting with yet-to-be-identified Malaysian businessmen had failed to eventuate earlier in the weekend.
Mr Samba was only in Melbourne for two days before he was shot dead on February 27, 2011. He had flown in from Adelaide to pick horses, at the request of John Nikolic, at the annual Inglis yearling sales at Oakland Junction.
Mr Samba was known for his good eye, using his years of experience to size up thoroughbreds for cashed-up owners.
His appearance at the Melbourne sales may have caught some by surprise.
Although he was a regular at the Magic Millions on the Gold Coast and Sydney and New Zealand’s yearling sales, Melbourne’s sales were out of the norm. But he believed he stood to make about $150,000 for his expert opinion.
It was a maiden business arrangement with John struck over a meal during the Magic Millions earlier in the year at which Mr Samba agreed to come to Melbourne’s sales.
John, the older brother of fiery jockey Danny, was also in town that weekend.
Mr Samba would meet him and his wife, Yvette, for dinner on Saturday night where it is believed the Malaysians were meant to attend.
John had lived and worked in Malaysia for years before returning to Australia in 2009, which may explain the Malaysian connection.
Earlier in the day, Mr Samba had received calls from a public pay phone in Melbourne’s inner southern suburbs — which is curious to Purana taskforce investigators who continue to probe the case.
Why that person did not use a mobile phone to call Mr Samba has raised suspicions.
There was also another call to Mr Samba from a public phone in the weeks prior to his visit to Melbourne which forms part of the investigation.
The caller’s activities are another riddle in a weekend filled with unanswered questions. A motive for the murder — whether it be over black money, a business deal gone wrong or something else — remains unknown. Mr Samba’s daughter, Victoria, who was married to Danny for three years, believes those who had her father killed remain a danger. She also believes the case extends outside Victoria’s borders.
“There’s been times I’ve feared for my own safety,’’ she said. Now remarried and a mother to three children — including her eldest who she had with Danny — Victoria continues to look for answers.
She has no idea why her father was in Beaconsfield Pde that night. There are several theories about who and what lured him from his hotel room just after 9pm that Sunday.
What police know is that an argument broke out and a gunman, and possibly another, drew guns and shot him five times as he ran for his life.
Witnesses saw a man with long blond hair, who remains a mystery, running from the crime scene. It is believed he was one of the gunmen. In the lead-up to that fateful day in 2011, Mr Samba had supported his daughter whose tumultuous marriage to Danny ended in divorce in 2010. And even though those closest to Mr Samba openly declare he was “no angel’’, his daughter marrying into the Nikolics had made him uncomfortable.
After the murder, Danny, who owns the Cricketer’s Arms Hotel in Port Melbourne, would volunteer himself for questioning by the homicide squad. He was in Sydney when the shooting occurred. John would be quizzed by police after his Gold Coast house was raided in April of 2011 in connection with the shooting.
It is believed that at the time of the murder he was visiting his parents in Port Melbourne — the neighbouring suburb of where the shooting took place.
Both brothers are believed to have denied to police any involvement in Mr Samba’s murder.
Danny, an errant but talented jockey, had become even closer to his John after his return to Australia, a bond which would end in them both being banned from Crown casino and every racetrack in Australia.
John’s reputation as a trainer was in tatters by 2010, forfeiting his Queensland training licence over a betting plunge against a horse he trained. He returned to train horses, only to land in trouble again this year after one of his thoroughbreds returned an abnormal blood test.
The Nikolics — including another brother, Tommy — have been mired in controversy, including:
IN2010, John handed in his training licence after his horse, race favourite Baby Boom, failed to place after a punting splurge against it. Among those punting on a poor performance were gamblers connected to Danny.
BEING questioned by detectives over Mr Samba’s murder — which occurred just 300m from their uncle’s property.
DANNY and John being investigated by the Purana taskforce over an alleged fixed race at Cranbourne in 2011 — two months after Mr Samba’s death — in which Danny’s ride, Smoking Aces, won. That investigation has been dropped.
JOHN and Danny being banned from Crown casino in 2012 after it emerged bets were placed on the Smoking Aces race from the complex’s TAB.
THREATS aimed at Victoria’s racing chief steward Terry Bailey that abruptly ended Danny’s riding career in 2012.
The Purana taskforce, which investigates organised crime, is working on leads that link Mr Samba’s death to men he knew.
And although the Samba family is desperate for the case to be solved, they are certain the murder is not linked to race fixing.