THERE is a fascinating video on YouTube, uploaded by Racing’s Inside Track TV, which shows the start, and everything before it, of a race at a quiet Wexford Friday evening meeting in 2017.

Paddy Graffin is standing on a rostrum trying to negotiate to ensure a fair beginning to this handicap chase. He speaks sternly, like that strict teacher you had, and his words are even more stern when he has to call a false start.

“Now, now… whoever did that, I’m going inside to review the tape. You’ve heard me say no and you galloped at me. Ruby Walsh would never let this happen if he was here!”

Graffin allows himself a laugh at the video now.

“That seems like a long time ago,” the Co Antrim native says. “Not long before that time there had been a lot of indiscipline from riders at the start. And in turn the jockeys were saying there was no consistency on our side. It was getting out of hand.

“We made a few changes to the regulations, decreasing the number of starters for one. At the time it was necessary to have that authoritarian approach, it needed contol.

“Now there is a better understanding of what is expected and all the riders know the starters well – your personality and your temperament. It has improved significantly for the increased level of communication and the senior riders have been hugely influential.

“That video is certainly not a true depiction of what goes on now.”

Antrim man

Graffin is over 20 years working for Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB). His previous 20 years was in many ways a perfect platform for his current job, when he worked as a civil servant while operating as a very successful point-to-point jockey.

He grew up in Antrim, in the village of Portglenone, but spent a significant amount of his time riding horses for Ian Ferguson in Cullybackey, just outside Ballymena.

Think racing and Antrim and you think McCoy. Graffin knows him and his family well. He was able to help McCoy when he first left for Britain, introducing him to a few people he knew.

A bit like the 20-time champion jockey, Graffin didn’t come from a family steeped in racing history. His father just loved going to point-to-points for a few beers and a few bets. When Graffin and his brother got to a certain age, their mother sent them racing with dad, to make sure he came home in time.

“I was smitten with horses and racing then,” he reflects. “I said to my father that one day I was going to do it and he dismissed me. At the time you needed to be a landowner and fairly wealthy to have any chance but things progressed, things changed as they do.

“I read Davy Russell’s interview in The Irish Field last week and what he said about starting off, that you literally start from the muck heap and work your way up, that’s what I did.

“I had a good time at it. I was northern region champion four times and I shared the national title with John Berry and Enda Bolger in 1990, when those two lads kindly agreed to let me draw level on the final day of the season at Dromahane.

“I was very thankful for that – they had both won the championship before and I think they had a lot of respect for the fact that I had been challenging them all the way that season while I was freelance. Michael Hourigan gave me a steering job on that final day and we had a three-way tie on 28 winners.”

At the same time Graffin worked as a civil servant, first in a local office in Ballymena before getting promoted to work at Stormont. The job was about financial security which was key for him with a young family, but it was never really him. Even when he got his promotion to work in Belfast, in many ways it didn’t suit him as he could no longer ride out in the mornings or school horses on his lunch break.

“Riding horses was always a hobby to me. It was a release at the weekend,” Graffin says.

“Even now, I still love riding horses just up and down the lanes at home in Kilkenny. Winston Churchill once said: ‘There is something about the outside of a horse that is good for the inside of a man,’ and that has always been a quote I’ve held close to my heart.

“My son died of depression a good few years ago now, back when people didn’t talk at all about that sort of thing. I can guarantee you if it wasn’t for horses, I wouldn’t be here talking to you today.

“We’ve always kept a horse or two at home and I was lucky enough to have Rathvinden as a young horse around about that time. We had him for a couple of years and I remember riding him up the lanes, just crying to myself. Horses have always been very close to my heart, they’ve always given me a release.

“When I was at my hardest moments, horses and the racing industry were there for me and it that is something that sticks with me, I want to be able to give back.”

Turf Club

It’s no surprise that when a position for racing official was advertised by the Turf Club, Graffin took the leap and made the move down south.

His role has evolved with the changing needs of Irish racing and his job now is split between the role of a starter and clerk of the course at Tramore, Tipperary, Navan and Gowran Park.

“As clerk of the course, essentially between when I get up in the morning and go to bed at night, if I can do one little thing that makes things safer or better for riders and horses, then I’ve done a good job.

“I have to ensure that the racetrack that has been prepared is satisfactory to me, that the bends are soft enough, that the obstacles are well presented, that the fences and hurdles are properly constructed and that the general state of the ground is safe.

“If at the end of a race day I come home and nothing happens, I don’t have to visit someone in hospital on my way back, then that is a great day for me.”

The game-changer for Graffin was when the role of inspector and clerk of the course amalgamated. Before you had an inspector who looked at the course leading up to the raceday and the clerk only arrived three hours before the first race. Now each course has its own clerk who oversees activity on the track year round.

“I am very lucky in my job in that I’ve been there and I’ve done it. I’d say there has been a few times when a young rider has gone home and told their Dad I gave them a telling off at the start of a race and he could tell them back, ‘sure that Graffin was just the same when he was riding.’ And in many ways, that’s the best thing – I’m the sinner who has sinned, but now I’m here to use that experience.

“I care a lot for the riders, particularly the young ones. We all have our disagreements at the races but at the end of the day, I’m always looking to help guys out.

“The jockeys we have now are a great bunch. They respect us because they know we’ll listen and they know we’ll address an issue if it needs to be addressed. It’s very much a team thing, it’s not an us-and-them thing.”

Tough decisions

The nature of the job will always lead to tough decisions to make, particularly as a cause of the weather, leading to safety concerns – be it torrential rain, low-lying sun or thick fog. Calling off a meeting will have huge implications for a track with loss of revenue, particularly from the television companies, while low sun seems to becoming more of an issue at the races these days. But Graffin says he has never felt pressure in this regard.

“It’s all about communication. That’s the key. Communicate with the jockeys and your racecourse management. We’re all on the same team and everyone recognised safety is key.

“I’ve never had a situation where there has been a serious disagreement. You’ll have people upset if a meeting is called off but they’ll always be understanding because most of them have experience with horses.

“The tracks I deal with are run by wonderful people, the likes of Harry McCalmont at Gowran Park, William Flood at Navan, Karl Casey at Tramore, Timmy Hyde at Tipperary. Those are all serious people who just love their racing. It’s not all about the day for them, they don’t want anything adverse happening on their track.

“With regards to low sun, it’s just a question of working with the riders again. If I have trouble seeing ahead of me without putting my hand above my eyes, then I feel that is justification for taking an obstacle out. But the issue some make about shadows, the never made much sense to me.

“Jumping is the name of the game. Some of the races we’ve seen in Britain this year, where only a small amount of obstacles have been jumped, that has been a nonsense.”

The starting of some of the big jumps races this season have also come in for criticism this season but Graffin has more sympathy for that.

“Robbie Supple is a very good starter and a very good horseman and I’ve huge respect for him,” he says. “Their instruction is that you must walk or jig-jog to him in a controlled manner but if you come down to him in a canter or anything more than that then he is obliged by the rules to not let them go.

“I think we have a little bit more discretion, more flexibility. The only difference with the two jurisdictions is that we didn’t specify any movement in particular, other than you had to come in controlled.”

Changes

Graffin says a number of changes have been hugely significant in recent seasons including the EasyFix apron, similar to what they use in point-to-points and the reintroduction of island hurdles, which he was instrumental in bringing about.

“I could never understand why there was a need for a constant running rail. The island hurdle gives a rider somewhere to go if he sees a fall happening up in front of him. The riders were hugely in favour of it but the trainers not so much at the time.

“One of the leading trainers said to me at the time that my track was more like a point-to-point and I took that as a wonderful compliment. Sure isn’t that where we all came from.”

Graffin’s passion for the point scene is clearly evident. He has never strayed far from his roots. Like everyone else now, he is staying at home, but at the same time working with his IHRB colleagues and his racecourses to ensure that racing is ready to go when the call comes.

He adds: “Hopefully we’ll be back soon. I love going racing and meeting people, all the wonderful characters, all of the rogues. I love that part of the job.

“There is never a dull day.”

Paddy Graffin observes the start of a flat race at Leopardstown from his rostrum \carolinenorris.ie