Support Your Local Sheriff

It appears there's a new sheriff in town and its name is the new Rule 212. Armed with an amended wording that requires jockeys to be seen to make a reasonable effort, it seems there's a new willingness among officials to actively pursue running-and-riding rules. It's a badly needed development and while many will ultimately judge its seriousness in relation to some of the industry's big-hitters it appears to be a framework within which officials can effectively operate.

At Dundalk on Friday night, Johnny Murtagh got fined €2,000, Seamus Heffernan was banned for five days and the Paul Smith owned Tobacco Bay got suspended from racing for 42 days after a maiden run. Both Murtagh and Heffernan argued their case with characteristic fluency and perhaps under the old criteria their arguments might have been enough. But whatever they said it still looked bad and they were penalised.

A day later at Fairyhouse the stewards looked into the running and riding of the Turf Club's old friend Pyromaniac in his first run over fences, noted the explanations but, significantly, advised jockey Denis O'Regan that he must be seen to be riding in accordance with the provisions of the new Rule 212.

Most significant of all however was the Look Closer appeal earlier this month in which original penalties of a €2,000 fine on Ellmarie Holden, a five ban for Rachel Blackmore, and the horse's 42 day suspension for its running at Fairyhouse, were confirmed. This was despite new subsequent veterinary evidence emerging at the appeal and the view of many that as such cases go this wasn't a particularly bad one.

The appeals body, which in 2016 failed to make any penalty stick in its original entirety, nevertheless effectively dismissed the new veterinary evidence and insisted the key issue was whether or not Look Closer's jockey was seen to make a genuine effort.

You can argue the Look Closer camp can feel hard done-by judged by the standards previously employed in such cases. But those standards had turned running and riding enquiries and the appeals process into little more than a cosmetic exercise in which lawyers indulged in the penalty kick exercise of introducing elements of doubt into what are fundamentally subjective judgement calls.

You can also argue the Look Closer case may be an example of the old practise of officialdom flexing its muscle with those possessed neither of the financial clout or industry influence to kick back although it's interesting that those involved with Tobacco Bay are hardly in any convenient 'little guy' category. It's also interesting that both Murtagh and Smith have indicated they aren't going to appeal. The trainer insists there was nothing untoward about Tobacco Bay's running but also commendably acknowledged that jockeys now have to be seen to be more vigorous, recognising a new regulatory reality where appearances count.

After just over a month of the new regime that Jockeys Association makes a fair point that no one in the stewards room, or the stands, can know what feel a jockey gets from a horse and that jockeys carrying out their duty of care to protect a horse, and possibly going easy on an animal not feeling right, are potentially open to sanction.

There's a contradiction there between welfare rights and duty to the betting public that can't be dismissed and it underlines how subjectivity in terms of stewards examining the evidence in front of them has hardly disappeared. Ultimately it still remains a judgement call.

So time will be needed for owners, trainers and jockeys to get used to any new culture. But it is to be hoped this really is a case of short term pain for long term gain because the old culture was unsustainable. Things need to bed down but in the overall sense it's time to support your local sheriff.

It seems a done deal that the Irish Derby and second leg of Irish Champions Weekend will be staged at the Curragh in 2018. Next year's fixture list won't be decided until September but apparently those parties with major clout on the new Curragh board are insistent racing at HQ continues during the €65 million rebuild. That's fair enough most of the time but hardly those two days when a 6,000 crowd capacity bites.

In fact if the general public needed any reminder of its lowly place in Irish racing's priority list then this is it.

Champions Weekend is consciously portrayed as a representation of the Irish bloodstock industry to the wider public. Like Derby day it is when racing here shows itself off. This year, and almost certainly next year too, that shop window is going to consist of a building site where a curtailed crowd will have the privilege of standing around in temporary facilities hoping it doesn't rain.

That sends out a positive message, doesn't it; that's going to make people feel valued: bring your brolly, squeeze in there, mind the wire and by the way, that'll be fifty quid each please: now go stand near the scaffolding and applaud on cue.

This is happening, supposedly, because no other track can exactly replicate the Curragh cards or cope with the crowd capacity and that's technically all true. Except we know how flexible racing can be here when it wants to be. We make a virtue out of it when it suits but not in this case and it's hard not to conclude it's at least partly because those paying through the gates don't really count.

It's obvious the choice between staging the Derby on a building site or Leopardstown is no choice at all. Neither is hosting racing's other shop-window event.

It will make little or no difference to the Flying Five's Group 1 ambitions if it's not run over Champions Weekend for a couple of years. The same applies to the Auction Sales event. And the Rockingham and a few other handicaps from the Derby programme can survive fine if switched around. It just requires a little flexibility and imagination, and perhaps most of all, a little will which however appears to be conspicuously absent.

It's only right a new Cheltenham festival award for leading owner is being introduced this year. An ownership oligarchy is becoming the leading players and personalities within National Hunt racing. Owners have always been the industry's most important element but never to the extent they are now. So their own award is simply an acknowledgement of the reality. Just try to contain your fervour at the ceremony.