JUST over a week ago Horse Racing Ireland issued a strong and fascinating statement regarding drug testing in Irish horse racing and contained in that press release were a series of substantially enhanced measures that made for intriguing reading.

After a sustained period of negative coverage for the sport, much of which arose from the case that arose as a result of Viking Hoard’s run at Tramore in October 2018, a statement outlining what the future will hold with regard to drug testing was a welcome one.

Given what has taken place in recent months, the measures set out in the HRI statement could be regarded as reactionary rather than proactive and this is something that the sport will have to improve on in due course.

However, if all the proposed measures are delivered upon it would leave racing in a much more defensible position were it to once again appear as one of the lead items on a show like Today With Claire Byrne as was the case just a few weeks ago when the sport did not come across at all well.

Over the last few weeks there is no doubting that racing has suffered significant reputational damage as a result of the Viking Hoard case. Statements such as the one issued last Friday week offer hope that racing’s image can be improved but the changes will have to be delivered upon and at no stage can horse racing start to feel complacent when it comes to its audience.

Racing would do well to heed some of the wider coverage it has attracted lately as it has not been at all good. Such coverage is unlikely to impact on the sport’s core audience. However, it could certainly have a bearing on those whose engagement is a much more fleeting one and is restricted to the likes of Cheltenham, the Grand National and Galway each year. This in turn has the potential to start a conversation across a wider section of society with potentially grave consequences.

The point of this is not to paint the darkest picture possible but such thoughts sprang to mind following an item in last week’s Irish Independent. The article in question detailed that the Irish Greyhound Owners and Breeders Federation, in the form of a video documentary series, are engaging in some promotional activity for the sector.

Greyhounds

It is now approaching two years since an RTÉ exposé did the greyhound industry very substantial damage. At the time the greyhound industry announced reforms concerning rehoming and retirement of dogs following the programme. These measure weren’t enough to keep some high profile sponsors on board and since then the greyhound industry has struggled to recover from the reputational damage it suffered.

Indeed things went so far as the Social Democrats failing in a Dáil motion last year to end the state funding of greyhound racing. Effectively since July 2019, the greyhound industry has been fighting a rear guard action.

How does this translate to horse racing? The parallel is that one notably damaging event, in racing’s case it is the Viking Hoard affair, has the potential to deliver consequences that will be felt long into the future not to mention a potential shift in the attitude of wider society.

Thus announcements like the one made by HRI are to be welcomed but they absolutely have to be delivered upon. There cannot be situation in a couple of years’ time where it emerges that various measures have yet to be implemented because then racing will find itself in an utterly indefensible position and leaves itself open to all sorts of attack.

Cheltenham devoid of amateurs doesn’t sit right

ON a totally different note, the Cheltenham Festival draws ever closer and with it looms the increasingly likely possibility that amateur riders may not be in action at this year’s meeting. If that were the case the four days would be greatly diminished by their absence as amateur jockeys are integral part of the fabric of the biggest meeting in National Hunt racing.

Furthermore, there are several races at the meeting whose resonance and appeal would unquestionably be diminished by having no amateurs in action. A case in point is the National Hunt Chase.

The Kim Muir would be just another handicap chase and one that could take place anywhere without amateur riders while there is just something inherently wrong with the hunter chase at the Festival taking place without amateurs.

Hopefully, this is something that might change by March 16th because a meeting devoid of amateur participation just doesn’t sit right.