IT would be understating things to say the last month or so hasn’t been the happiest one for horse racing in this country and despite some performances of great note on the track the undertone has not been a positive one and it feels like this is a sport under siege.
Since Jim Bolger’s explosive interview with Paul Kimmage in The Sunday Independent last month there has been anything but a feeling of positivity within Irish racing circles. What has happened in the interim has been an information vacuum in which numerous theories have abounded.
This is never an ideal scenario as information vacuums lead to all sorts of suppositions, conjecture and theories, many of which lack credibility but abound nonetheless in the absence of cold, hard facts. The upcoming Oireachtas Committee will afford Horse Racing Ireland, the IHRB and the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association a chance to express their view concerning Bolger’s claims about doping in Irish racing.
Whether this hearing will shed any new light on the topic seems unlikely given the news that the trainer himself will not be part of this hearing. What course the conversation around this topic will take after next week’s hearing remains to be seen, but have no doubt that this has been an extremely damaging few weeks for racing and the sport needs to examine how it deals with such issues.
A generally conservative sport resistant to change needs to adapt when it comes to handling divisive and controversial topics such as the claims made by Bolger. In the past racing has generally opted for the disapproving silence approach to such matters and with a few exceptions that is largely the approach that has been taken on this matter. Was it the right one? That’s pretty doubtful. Will it be the right one next time around? Again, doubtful.
However, one thing is pretty certain and that is racing needs to wake up and start moving with the times and realise that the silent disapproval method just doesn’t cut it any more.
Atmosphere returns to the Curragh
The finish of last weekend’s Irish Derby was worthy of the country’s premier classic. The fact that the finish was fought out by a pair of British-trained colts doesn’t detract at all from a wonderful spectacle as Frankie Dettori looked to have put the race to bed when kicking for home on Lone Eagle before Hurricane Lane ground him down in inexorable fashion over the last two furlongs.
Obviously the atmosphere couldn’t quite compare to previous renewals of the Derby but it represented a quantum leap forward from the utterly spartan surrounds in which Santaigo prevailed a year previously. There might only have been a crowd of around 1,000 at the Curragh last Saturday but it made such a difference to have even a gathering of this back on the track.
The tangible hum of anticipation that accompanies a big race was back as was the ripple of excitement and anticipation which often greets the sweeping charge of a favourite through the pack (see Romantic Proposal). This was only the start of crowds returning to Irish racecourses and it was a pointer to better times ahead. However, when one considers how events have unfolded this week concerning indoor dining, who knows when we might get decent sized crowds back on a racecourse.
THERE was a time when the greatest National Hunt fixture of them all pitted the very best against each other over the course of three days and 18 races which afforded various equine participants next to no hiding places.
That was the Cheltenham Festival of old, but it seems by the time we get to 2023 the fixture will be scarcely recognisable following widespread speculation at the start of last week that the meeting was set to switch to five days.
Inevitable was one word which could neatly describe the likely expansion of Cheltenham. For quite some time now the possibility of a fifth day has been mooted and it would seem that we are on the cusp of that becoming a reality and what a terrible shame it would be to see yet a further dilution of the product.
The argument will be made that if Cheltenham goes to five days of six-race cards it will require the mere addition of two more races. However, we are already dealing with a meeting which is spread too thinly.
In an appearance on Racing TV last week Ruby Walsh observed that one of the two races that could be introduced into a five-day Festival was the novice handicap chase which was axed from this year’s meeting. If that happened to be the case that would leave the Cheltenham Festival with no fewer than five novice chase events which would be a ridiculous situation and one in which the meeting could hardly lay claim to pitting the best against the best rather it could be argued that the chances of horses being able to swerve each other are being maximised.
Cheltenham will always have an allure and prestige that is unmatched but it is heading down a potentially perilous path and one where quality and the highest standards of competition are going to be impacted. These are two attributes which lie at the very heart Cheltenham and have played such a part in the lore and mystique which has surrounded the meeting for the best part of a century.
Furthermore, a Cheltenham Festival that finishes on a Saturday will lose its stranglehold as being the only show in town when it comes to sporting action. Saturdays are just a bit different and suddenly Cheltenham finds itself pitted against Six Nations rugby and Premier League soccer. Quite possibly the day’s activities at Prestbury Park become a mere footnote in the day’s sporting headlines. Maybe this might provide some food for thought.