[5] Almost a decade later, it was alleged that Hobby was paid over $1 million by Connell to travel around the world for several years to avoid returning to Australia and facing an inquiry.
[7] In the 1987 3,200 -metre (two-mile) Perth Cup, Connell's horse Rocket Racer, ridden by leading Western Australian jockey J. J. Miller, won the race by nine lengths and couldn't be pulled up, doing nearly another lap of the course.
Connell had backed the horse, initially at long odds, down to a 2/1 favouritism, and was believed to have collected $500,000 from bookmakers, as well as the $210,000 prize money for the win.
[8] The horse's performance, and subsequent collapse and death from unknown causes a few weeks later, was never fully investigated or explained, although it is generally assumed that it had been injected with etorphine ("elephant juice").
[9] During the 1980s, Connell started acquiring numerous local businesses through aggressive takeovers, before setting himself up as a deposit taker for investors under the name of Rothwells Merchant Bank, which had begun its life as a Brisbane-based menswear chain.
Despite that, after Burke's resignation on 25 February 1988, incoming premier Peter Dowding was required to enter very complicated and controversial dealings in an attempt to protect the government's interests.