Racing identity Les Samba Shot Dead In Melbourne

B&R Reports: Victorian police are investigating the murder of prominent Sydney racehorse owner & former South Australian trainer Les Samba, who was shot dead "in a hail of bullets" at 9.35pm on Sunday evening in a laneway off Beaconsfield Parade in Middle Park in suburban Melbourne. Police confirmed Samba "had an argument with another man, before suffering multiple bullet wounds to the head & back," reported The Herald-Sun. "He was running when he was shot." Samba, 60, raced Gorky Park, Winter King, Sea Lord & this season's Listed Gimcrack Stakes-winning 2YO filly Defiant Dame with fellow high-profile Sydney owner & property developer Ron Medich (arrested in October & charged with "soliciting to murder" fellow Sydney businessman Michael McGurk, a business associate shot dead outside his Sydney home in September 2009). Samba (who strapped Rain Lover when the champion stayer won his 2nd Melbourne Cup in 1969) was in Melbourne for the current yearling sales & Detective Inspector John Potter noted: "We believe he (Samba) had some sort of connection to this individual (the shooter). Based on the information we currently have, we don't believe it could be a random shooting." The gunman was described as "in his 20s or 30s, wearing dark clothes & a hat, with distinctive light-coloured hair which could have been a wig". Samba apparently parked a silver 2010 Hyundai (displaying NSW number plates) in Beaconsfield Parade & "then had some kind of argument with another man which ended in the shooting". (Mar 1)