IT was a busy week in Ballybrit for anyone in the racing game last week, though perhaps the group kept active the most were the IHRB’s group of stewards.

Whatever it is about the western air, this often tends to be a full-on seven days for racing’s referees. One of the more remarkable weeks on that front came at the 2018 Festival. Over the course of that meeting alone, we had stewards’ reports that featured details of a horse colliding with a wall upon pulling up, a trainer being fined €1,500 for leaving a horse overnight in a stable described as being "in a deplorable condition", as well as every runner in a €100,000 handicap hurdle taking the wrong course.

In 2021, there was drama when Jessica Harrington 'won' a two-year-old fillies' maiden with a three-year-old handicapper, while in 2024, Galway Hurdle gamble Petrol Head was withdrawn on raceday morning by the IHRB after a positive sample emerged from his previous Bellewstown win.

There are bundles of other examples too. We’ve had reserve systems come under scrutiny when Carlingford Lough managed to get in at the bottom of the 2013 Galway Plate (after a horse in the same ownership was withdrawn). Even 12 months ago, we saw the Galway Hurdle decided in the stewards’ room when Helvic Dream was demoted to second behind Ndaawi due to interference.

Put simply, we are never starved of regulatory stories and regulatory content in the west. This year was no different.

Aside from a clear spike in the number of inquiries we see typically at a standard race meeting for in-race offences, there was a fair share of peculiar penalties and hearings too.

Tony Martin was brought before the stewards for his failure to lodge a "request to attend the start" form and where he also apparently removed the flash noseband from Putapoundinthejar at the Galway Hurdle start. The stewards were satisfied that no further action was warranted after Martin said the sheepskin nose band had fallen off the feature winner, causing the flash noseband to become loose. He added that he was unable to get it tightened as the horse left the parade ring so he went to the start and removed it.

Penalties handed

Separately, the now five-time Galway Hurdle-winning trainer was fined €500 a day later for leading up a horse right across the middle of the parade ring crowd. Martin, who apologised for his actions, stated that the groom leading up his charge had been kicked and he was already late when he took over to lead up the horse.

That wasn’t the only parade ring query of the week. Adam Leahy was fined €500 for not parading Party President in the ring prior to being mounted on day two. This was due to a miscommunication between the groom leading up the horse, who was said to be difficult at the time.

In a much more high profile setting, Danny Mullins was handed fines totalling €3,000 - and Willie Mullins a further €500 - for the pre-race movements of Tounsivator ahead of the Galway Hurdle. The horse was said to be repeatedly turned back against the flow of the other parading horses and circled at the exit gate - “causing congestion amongst the other runners”. Getting a good spot at the start is of major importance for a handicap like this, but the stewards appeared to take a pretty dim view of the leading rider’s actions.

The behaviour of jockey Declan Queally Jr came to the stewards’ attention after “an exchange” he had with starter Joe Banahan, following a handicap hurdle where Rocky’s Howaya was last to complete. Officials on the day were satisfied that there was a sufficient basis to refer the matter to a senior racing official for further investigation.

Meanwhile, Paul Townend was pretty vocal about his frustration with the decision to suspend 15 jockeys over the start of the Galway Blazers Handicap Chase on Friday.

Starting breaches

Speaking to Daragh Ó Conchúir on TG4, the most successful rider in Cheltenham Gold Cup history said: “We don’t know as much as anyone what’s happening down there. Just the inconsistency in the starts at the moment, it isn’t good for anyone. It’s not helping anyone.

“The finger is always pointed at the jockeys but we were coming in a good straight line and eased when we were told to ease. We were suspended for it. We were probably coming faster two days before that in the big races and were let go. If you take a pull, you’re left at the start. If you go, you’re getting penalised.”

Additionally, we saw probably the most high-profile failed alcohol tests for a jockey in Irish racing since Paul Carberry in 2009 when last season’s champion conditional Eoin Staples and long-standing flat jockey Leigh Roche (fresh from a double earlier in the week) returned an alcohol result in excess of 22 microgrammes per 100 millilitres of breath on Sunday.

In both instances, the raceday stewards stood the riders down for the day and referred the matter to the referrals committee.

Away from those irregular breaches, however, anyone who keeps an eye on stewards’ reports regularly will have noticed last week that the length of what was released throughout the week was considerably bigger than what we typically receive for Irish racedays.

More detail and more questions being asked is to be welcomed, even if the likelihood of having more incidents to report on increases when field sizes are full around an unorthodox track like Galway (and races are being run in an ultra-competitive environment).

But while several have pointed to the whip being cracked last week, the real test is for these types of increasingly transparent, longer reports to become more like the norm, rather than a spike on a week where wider interest levels in the sport are heightened. The more details published regularly, the greater trust levels in the Irish product will be on a day-to-day basis.

Aiming for more

Now, it’s not as though every possible query last week was checked out - it wouldn’t have been any harm for more questions to be asked of different runs and rides across the meeting.

Still, expecting the raceday stewards - while operating in their current format - to be able to keep tabs on every single detail is a massively challenging undertaking. It is a tough job and one I don’t envy.

Maximising the detail published regularly on disappointing beaten runners, cases of improved form and curious tactics must be our next step forward if we really want true transparency in our product - whether that be at Galway or anywhere else in the country.