Battleoverdoyen has now won a Point-to-Point, Bumper and Hurdle in three starts© Photo Healy Racing
Even those of us without a pub-patriot 'wrap the green flag around me' bone in our bodies find it hard not to chuckle sometimes at how British politics is fast approaching a no-deal Brexit meltdown over the 'Irish problem.' Irony really can be a bitch. A lot of history is coming home to roost. 'Schandenfreude' may be a provocatively continental word to use in the circumstances but quite a lot of pleasure is floating around at Britain's self-inflicted misfortune. However it's best to keep in mind how, in the event of no-deal, the most appropriate word for racing here will be disaster.
That this crisis of English nationalism has turned into such a monumental cock-up was indicated last week when Horse Racing Ireland's chief executive Brian Kavanagh outlined a scenario for March 29 and beyond should there be no deal and no replacement for the current Tripartite agreement. Admittedly it's a worst-case scenario but on the basis that what's possible is inevitable it's worth bearing in mind.
Say a trainer in the Republic wants to run a horse in a race in the North of Ireland: after that horse has run, in order to get home the horse will have catch a ferry to Scotland, and then get on a plane that flies to either Dublin or Shannon. That's because horses coming here from the UK will have to go through a border inspection post to be checked by veterinary officials. The only two such posts in the Republic are at Dublin and Shannon airports. There are no such posts at any of the seaports.
Kavanagh was blunt about the impact of such a scenario, describing it as unworkable. Movement of horses across the Irish Sea would essentially halt. The HRI boss says it will be a bigger problem for British racing since they require Irish sourced horses to fill their race programme. But considering the overall movement of horses, particularly in relation to the breeding industry, this country has a huge stake in Teresa May pulling some political rabbit out of the hat.
It's little surprise then how HRI's announcement of its 2019 budget can be interpreted through the Brexit prism. The same is likely to be the case when its long-awaited strategic five year plan is finally unveiled in the New Year. The 2019 budget is effectively the first year of that strategy and it looks significant that increased investment of €1.32 million is being put into the independent and non-profit Irish Equine Centre in Johnstown by HRI.
Whatever the outcome of this Brexit fiasco there's a lot at stake for the horse industry here in persuading both the government, and in particular the EU, about the effectiveness of the new 'High Health' category for thoroughbreds which is hoped will facilitate ease of movement similar to the old Tripartite agreement. That requires the veterinary health of horses in this country to be not only top-quality but seen to be so.
A €2.9 million increase in prizemoney to €66.1 million next year can also be read as acknowledgement of a need for greater self-sufficiency within the sport here in the event of movement across the Irish Sea becoming more restricted. That such a prospect should be looming over a lot more than just horses in 2019 is a deeply dispiriting idea, and one that should make any pleasure at British chaos a very fleeting sensation.
On to more parochial problems and especially how the weekend's biggest topic wasn't Easy Game's Grade Two win at Navan, or Envoi Allen's hugely impressive bumper display a little later, but the failure of the stewards to hold a running and riding enquiry after the JP McManus owned Ilikedwayurthinkin finished fifth in a Fairyhouse handicap hurdle on Saturday.
Mark Walsh's mount started 7-2 favourite for his first handicap and it is fair to say his run conjured a lot of comment after he ran on well to be nearest at finish behind the winner Clementina. As is the nature of these things quite a lot of it was less than complimentary to Walsh who after the horse made a mistake three out came widest of all into the straight before running on in the closing stages.
The stewards on the day apparently examined the run and were happy with the ride in the context of the horse's chance being compromised by the mistake at the third last. And that could well be the case. Walsh might in fact have performed a minor miracle to get him as close as he did. But it didn't look that way to a lot of people and since the start of 2017 how it looks actually matters.
The Turf Club, now the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, amended its 'Non-Trier' rules on the back of a series of high-profile and controversial cases. Rule 212 now specifically states that every horse is "seen, to a reasonable and informed member of the racing public, to have run on its merits."
The wording is no accident. It's the result of painstaking examination, including, apparently, by no less than the current Chief Justice, Frank Clarke, precisely because it allows racecourse stewards a way into cases where it is almost by definition impossible to prove intent. This recognition that appearances matter helped the new rule to be labelled the most extensive set of running and riding regulations in any major racing jurisdiction in the world.
To an awful lot of people the Ilikedwayurthinkin ride didn't look good. That doesn't mean Walsh broke the rules. But under those same rules the fact it didn't look good justified a running and riding enquiry. Maybe there was nothing to it. But we'll never know since it wasn't felt that even asking a question was necessary and in the circumstances that didn't look good at all.
Twenty four hours later the IHRB defended the decision on the basis that the stewards decided amongst themselves that Ilikedwayurthinkin's mistake at the third last flight compromised his chance. The IHRB chief executive Denis Egan said that Walsh might have been a bit more aggressive after the last but he wouldn't have won anyway. That's a valid opinion but a subjective one nonetheless.
What's a lot more objective is that under the IHRB's rules there was justification to at least ask Walsh for his opinion, and be seen to do so. In the circumstances it was of legitimate interest to the betting public. The decision not to do so added to a growing impression that after an initial burst of Rule 212 cases last year old habits have returned with a vengeance when it comes to examining running and riding cases.
As for the rest of the weekend, getting hot under the collar about youthful potential rather than proven ability is the sort of mugs game that never stops anyone from indulging in it. Winning a Listed bumper and a maiden hurdle hardly ranks highly on the substance metre. But the manner in which Envoi Allen and Battleoverdoyen did exactly that at Navan on Sunday suggests they could be major talents in waiting.
They also confirmed growing evidence over recent weeks that when it comes to exciting young potential Gordon Elliott looks to be holding a very strong hand this season.
Finally, plenty within the sport seem to believe the British Horseracing Authority's review of last season’s Cheltenham Festival was little more than an exercise in activity for its own sake. The review produced recommendations to try and reduce the number of fatal injuries to horses throughout jump racing as a whole, none of which, by definition, can eliminate the reality that jump racing causes fatal injuries to horses.
That inescapable reality can never be ducked. But jump racing's future is fundamentally bound up in not only trying to keep such incidents to a minimum but being seen to do so. Here too appearances do matter.
