Gordon Elliott applauds the victory of Buveur D'Air over Samcro at Newcastle© Photo Healy Racing
Irish racing has a profile problem. It is desperate for wider exposure and has ambitions to broaden its popular appeal. That's because the sport is struggling against an increasing public disconnect which is not helped by sliding coverage in mainstream media. Fears have even been expressed about it veering towards minority status. This is an urgent problem for racing's future. It needs attention. So Irish racing's solution to this Irish racing problem is to stick itself behind a pay-wall.
Well not everything exactly. In February, RTE and Horse Racing Ireland agreed a deal which will see up to 27 days a year shown free to air on the national broadcaster. Even in a financial sporting environment where state broadcasters get priced out of most things it's hardly an overwhelming commitment to the sport.
It didn't used to matter so much because for over a decade the At The Races channel and Irish racing shared a relationship of mutual benefit. The sport here was a bulwark of the channel's coverage. In return ATR was a vehicle for the sport to reach a wide audience. Sure one can maintain it wasn't strictly free to air but it was part of a package most everyone in the country is signed up to.
You can also argue that ATR's coverage didn't prevent quite a few of Irish racing's vital statistics from sliding dramatically in that time. But it's just as easy to argue that the platform offered a day to day connection to the wider public - that audience the sport is supposedly anxious to woo - and who knows how steep the statistical slide might have been without that.
We'll find out from January 1 when Racing UK takes over as the rebranded as Racing TV. It will cost over €30 a month to look at Irish racing although discount offers at first will probably ease customers in after what has been a controversial process. Some people still probably won't pay. Others probably can't. But once things settle down devotees probably won't think twice about it.
Those involved in the deal are banking on that and in strict bottom line terms they must be delighted. It is a very good financial deal for racecourses here. Picture rights are the most lucrative asset the tracks have and no one can dispute they have played their hand well. HRI benefits too. Putting the product behind a pay-wall makes perfect profit and loss sense.
Premier League football is inevitably referenced as a sport that has thrived behind a subscription model. And the top-flight of the English game has thrived over the last two decades, lucratively tapping into the international obsession with football and the Premiership. But football is singular in its popular appeal.
A pay-wall makes perfect profit and loss sense with cricket too. Except now many within cricket concede that removing the sport from much of its potential audience has enriched the game at the cost of making it irrelevant to a great many people. Similar fears have already been expressed about F1 being put behind a broadcasting pay-wall in 2019.
As pacts go it isn't complicated: immediate and guaranteed income but less viewers and less fans.
Irish racing's media rights are reportedly worth about €35 million a year. That's significant money although tiny by comparison to some other sports. Crucially though racing is already under pressure to maintain public interest. Putting it behind a pay-wall pays off now. But at what future cost in terms of wider public engagement.
Irish racing was shown the money and snapped RUK's hand off. It's not hard to see why. Certainly the tracks weren't going to do anything else when the chance appeared to jump into bed with SIS and sign away the picture rights. But the overall wellbeing and future prospects of any sport often require a wider perspective than the bottom line. Amid the various sectional interests involved it is HRI's function to provide such perspective. Has it done so?
Racing's ruling body appears to have simply examined the bottom line figure and enthusiastically jumped at the money. It's a move that pays off for those within Irish racing but at the expense of the sport's public reach. So this is a sport which is richer now but at the risk of becoming more irrelevant in future. Plenty will believe that is ultimately not a good deal.
The Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board is examining whether or not to follow the example of the British Horseracing Authority who last week announced they are drug testing the first four finishers in all major races in Britain. The first four in all Group races on the flat, and in Grade One National Hunt contests will be tested. The BHA said it hopes other major racing jurisdictions do the same.
Currently in Ireland samples are taken from the first and second horses in all Group One and Group Two races on the flat. The first and second in Grade One National Hunt races are also tested. It seems a reasonable step for Irish racing's regulator to replicate, especially considering how a new anti-doping regime is set to come into force from January 1.
The success or otherwise of any new anti-doping era will not just depend on tackling drugs but being seen to do so. Irish racing has ground to make up in terms of public credibility. The nature of the game means it is always open to suspicion and here specifically it is always open to perceptions of a close-knit industry closing ranks when negative headlines arise.
Last week's news that the Willie Mullins trained Tornado Flyer tested positive for a prohibited substance after winning Punchestown's Champion Bumper in April must be viewed in the context of the substance found in the horse.
Ceterizine is an anti-histamine commonly used by humans. The European Horserace Scientific Liaison Committee has recommended a screening limit of 100ng/ml. Tornado Flyer's sample was between just four and six ng/ml. It's right to assume this had no impact on the horse's performance. And at the time the sample was taken there was no screening limit in place for Ceterizine.
The Referrals Panel looking at the case and described it as an unusual case before exercising its discretion and not imposing any sanction on either Mullins or Tornado Flyer. The decision not to penalise Mullins is entirely understandable. But the horse tested positive for a prohibited substance and has been allowed keep the race. And that doesn't sit quite right, no matter the circumstances.
Smacro might yet win the Champion Hurdle in March. In all likelihood he won't if a fit and healthy Buveur D'Air arrives at Cheltenham with his A-Game and secures the necessary luck in running. But that's a lot of ifs. So having made their Champion Hurdle bed it's logical that the Gigginstown team continue to want to lie in it.
But even if Samcro does land the championship it's now safe to say the balloon of expectation that followed him through his novice career has well and truly popped. Maybe the billing hung around him was silly and unrealistic. But there's no way it corresponds to getting beaten in Down Royal and being wiped out by Buveur D'Air in a Fighting Fifth.
It may be the nature of the beast to invest unrealistic hopes in the next big thing. But it often means not giving due credit to the actual real thing in front of us.
If Apple's Jade isn't getting better with age then she's doing a very passable impression of it. This is a mare who won the first of her eight Grade Ones by 41 lengths at Aintree. But her Hatton's Grace hat-trick performance on Sunday might just be the best performance she's ever put up. This is a genuine top-notcher at the peak of her game. This is a horse to relish.
