Based on recent precedents, Oliver, 40, is facing at least a 12-month ban, a period which would make it difficult for him to resume riding at any meaningful level.
For the jockey who has won two Melbourne Cups and about whom a movie was made two years ago, the fall from grace is another tragedy in a life containing a big share of them.
His father Ray Oliver, also a jockey, died in a race fall at Kalgoorlie when his youngest son was 3 years old.
But it was the death of his older brother Jason in a fall during a trial at Belong in Perth in 2002 and his ride to win the Melbourne Cup the day after the funeral that made Oliver a household name and inspired a movie.
Oliver's formal admissions concerning the charges he now faces came on Monday, two days after the biggest racing carnival in Australia ended and after weeks of speculation and debate on whether he should be riding while under investigation over the bet.
Both charges revolve around a A$10,000 bet Oliver admits to having placed on the horse Miss Octopussy, who started favourite and won at Moonee Valley in October 2010 and paid a return of $2.30.
Oliver rode the second favourite Europe Point in the race. There are no charges relating to his handling of that horse.
The second charge of using a mobile phone is in direct contravention of the rules of racing which prohibit jockeys even having a phone in their possession in the vicinity of the jockeys' room.
Oliver has been one of the most successful jockeys in Australia for two decades and has won seven Melbourne jockeys' championships.
He has ridden two Melbourne Cup winners, four Caulfield Cup winners and twice has won the Cox Plate.
When the allegations he has now admitted to emerged, Oliver was sacked from his rides in the Caulfield Cup and Cox Plate, but still rode three group one winners during the spring carnival, the latest of them Happy Trails, which won Saturday's Emirates Stakes. Earlier, he won the 1000 Guineas aboard Commanding Jewel at Caulfield.
The hearing of the two charges is scheduled for next Tuesday.
Racing Victoria (RV) chief executive Rob Hines said stewards investigating allegations that Oliver breached the rules of racing had been unable to act any earlier.
Defending RV against suggestions it should have stood Oliver down from riding when the allegations emerged, Hines said authorities were bound by the law and had little or no grounds for withdrawing the jockey's licence.
Hines rejected media reports over the past two weeks that Oliver had made formal admissions in the case.
"It has been alleged in various news reports that Damien Oliver had confessed to the illegal bet on Miss Octopussy some weeks ago," Hines said yesterday.
Before that, insufficient evidence was available to stewards to either lay charges or stand Oliver down.
- AAP
