LES Samba was a complex man: controversial trainer of thoroughbred horses, doting father, one-time male stripper, renowned judge of horse flesh, friend of gangsters, police target and one-time father-in-law of champion jockey Danny Nikolic. Samba, who successfully trained in Adelaide in the 1980’s, over recent years selected yearlings and managed and co-owned top-line gallopers such as Thorn Park, Flying Pegasus, Gorky Park, and Guillotine. He was also involved with the outstanding galloper Shogun Lodge.

Les Samba was a strapper for the Bart Cummings stable and was closely connected to the care of the brilliant Rain Lover when he won back-to-back Melbourne Cups in 1968/69. The first sign that Samba lived a double life came many years ago when he took to running the door for that old fraud Abe Saffron at one of Adelaide's less respectable nightclubs. Saffron, who spent a fortune in legal fees trying to lose the well-deserved moniker of Mr Sin, was Australia's biggest vice mogul - not that it worried Samba. Les could be seen in the door, dressed in a stolen jacket and smooth turtle-neck jumper, looking like a younger version of Roger Moore's James Bond. At the first sign of trouble he would call the drag queens into the fight before weighing in with an iron bar.

In racing, Samba ran a small doping crew and would drive overnight from Adelaide to feed favourites a powerful sedative provided by a corrupt chemist. One night his doping plans were extinguished when a security guard relieved himself in grass next to a Flemington stable, unaware this was the spot where Samba was hiding. Samba was also a man of many secrets. Most would die with him when he was fatally shot in February 2011 in Middle Park, an inner-city Melbourne suburb better known for its up-market Victorian-era houses than colourful racing identities and murder. But investigations into unsolved murders, especially high-profile ones, have a habit of not going away. As public pressure for arrests built, detectives dug harder and harder, hoping for a clue that would lead them to a killer. Sometimes they found things that they weren’t expecting. More than 20 people were interviewed over the killing of horse trainer Les Samba as police reveal he owed $200,000 in drug debts to a criminal syndicate.

SAMBA appears to have had no idea someone wanted him dead. He’d travelled from Sydney to Melbourne in late February 2011 to attend the yearling sales and was staying at the classy Crown Metropol hotel. Samba was considered an expert judge of yearlings and was a big spender at sales around the country for many years. He and his family owned several top racehorses and had success with the 2006 Victoria Derby runner-up Gorky Park. A bogus $3 million racehorse deal was the bait that lured Les Samba to Melbourne to be murdered. A close friend of Mr Samba has told police that his mate ­believed he stood to pocket $150,000, five per cent of the price of ­the horses he understood he was to buy for rich Malaysian businessmen at the Inglis yearling sales. But the friend, West Australian racing figure Bruce Morris, said the Malaysians never existed and the payment was a ruse.

On the night of his death, Mr Samba left the Hotel, just after 9pm. He made the short trip in his hire car to Beaconsfield Parade in Middle Park. The victim then walked about 60 metres and stopped outside number 299 near a pedestrian crossing. There were vacant car spots along the street and yet he parked away from the meeting place, which may mean he was unfamiliar with the area or was given a bodgy address to lure him into the trap. What is certain is someone he knew set him up. He arrived about 9.30pm. A short time later, witnesses heard an argument and then gun shots. Samba died at the scene. He collapsed face-down in the middle of the road where his killer couldn't have known that Samba was already dying from internal wounds as he walked up and shot him again - this time in the head from point-blank range. The gunman had a medium build with distinctive light coloured, untidy hair that was protruding from a black hat. He was wearing dark clothing and was aged in his mid 20s to 30s.

At the time of his death he was in partnership with Sydney identity Ron Medich with the horse Sea Lord. Medich had been charged with the murder of property developer Michael McGurk and was on bail. The 70 year old was effectively sentenced to life in jail over the murder of his nemesis. Within hours of the shooting, journalists were calling Nikolic asking if he’d heard that his former father-in-law was dead. Nikolic would later voluntarily speak to police about Samba’s death. It is a matter of public record that Nikolic's brother, Tommy, lived in Beaconsfield Parade, about 300 metres from the murder scene. This may simply be a coincidence and murders are not solved based on conjecture. But homicide detectives would make their own moves as well. In early April, they searched the Gold Coast home of Danny’s brother, former trainer, John Nikolic. Nikolic's brother John was also interviewed by police on the Gold Coast where they seized computers and mobile phones from a property. During the probe, police uncovered reliable information that an April 2011 Cranbourne race won by Smoking Aces and ridden by Danny Nikolic had been fixed. In March 2019, John Nikolic was sentenced to 23 years in a Fiji jail after being convicted of drug smuggling and possession of undeclared weapons. Les Samba's murder remains unsolved with a $1 million reward still remains on offer for answers.