Looking In More Than Out

There will be plenty of focus on New Year's Day when coverage of Irish racing begins on Racing TV. Even those of us who suspect allowing the sport go behind a paywall is a long-term own-goal can recognise it as an immediate expression of commercial reality. The money is in supplying pictures to bookmakers. Concerns that racing's overall profile will shrink as a result don't fit into the bottom-line. Irish racing can afford to dismiss that right now. But the cost of such dismissal may loom sooner rather than later.

If the money is in pictures to bookmakers what happens if that demand disappears: an uncertain outlook for betting shops generally, and in Britain in particular with the looming loss of Fixed Odds Betting Terminals, has provoked forecasts of widespread closures. The current model requires shops to show pictures in: what if they're not there? And will any new model be lucrative enough to allow intangible but vital concepts such as profile and public engagement continue to be marginal?

The pictures issue is just one expression of how racing continues to indulge itself with some regrettably introspective tendencies going into 2019.

The New Year will see the start of the much lauded and long-awaited Anti-Doping policy. After much deliberation and negotiation, plans to introduce a system that can trace each thoroughbred throughout its life were introduced in July when the 'Industry Wide Policy on Prohibited Substances & Doping Control' was approved.

There's plenty to like about it too with elements such as lifetime bans for horses that test positive for steroids and no Therapeutic Use Exemptions. A mechanism by which Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board officials can gain access to unlicensed premises such as stud farms was even managed through a Service Level Agreement method.

This had the potential to provide something of a brave new dawn, especially in the light of Brexit worries forcing the bloodstock industry generally to get its house in order and be seen to have the highest standards in place.

Yet even after all that negotiation and effort, racing still managed to shoot itself in the foot, and illustrate some astonishing insularity, by compromising it all with a needless 'prior day notice' clause when it comes to random testing. It's something the IHRB itself described as less than ideal even before the new policy was unveiled.

The idea of notice in any anti-doping system is not just stupid, it is counter-productive. If everyone in the racing and bloodstock industries really are confident there isn't a problem with Performance Enhancing Drugs there's no reason to leave this prior day notice clause glaringly hang out of an otherwise admirable set of ambitions.

It's a gaping own goal in terms of public confidence about how the horse game regulates itself. Yet because of internal politics, and narrow sectional interests, a lot of sincere effort in the battle against cheating has got compromised. It doesn't look good. But once again Irish racing has chosen to suit itself rather than worry about what the wider public might think about it.

The fingerprints of a similar sort of arrogance linger over other areas too, like the Curragh project perhaps, the biggest capital development investment in the sport's history, which will open in 2019.

An original cost element of €65 million for the development quickly became €72 million. Then there were suggestions the overall cost would be nearer €80 million. Now the racecourse rumour train is rising quite a lot of smoke about the final cost ultimately climbing even further. But no one knows for sure because no one's saying anything.

This project benefits from a substantial amount of public money. Despite that it has also been portrayed in terms of being a vanity project for a wealthy few and a white elephant for the many. But considering the state of the old Curragh a new HQ for Irish racing is both a reasonable and desirable objective.

It's perspective though needs to be to reach out and openly engage with a much wider audience than before. Certainly a willingness to make the new Curragh a more integral part of the local community in Co. Kildare would seem to be important for its long term sustainability. Yet some myopic habits when it comes to divulging information clearly die hard.

Racing can currently afford to indulge this instinct towards turning in on itself. But if there's one New Year resolution it might do well to keep in mind it is that arrogance has to be afforded. Circumstances change and attention isn't a switch you can turn on and off. One a sport's public profile starts slipping it very often keeps slipping. And that's a cost no sport can afford.

But that's the New Year. It is time for some arbitrary, meaningless reflections on the Old Year of 2018 and some arbitrary and meaningless awards.

Ride of the Year: Considering the standard of jockeyship here it feels odd not to stay local. But Englishman James Doyle produced a vintage ride on Sea Of Class in July's Irish Oaks. Coming from last to first without using the whip on a talented but temperamental filly was Piggott-like in its sangfroid.

Training Performance of the Year: A host of contenders here but there's no ignoring Patrick Prendergast's accomplishment with the Moyglare Stud Stakes heroine Skitter Scatter. The two year filly began her seven race juvenile career in March when beaten at Dundalk. She ended it a Group One winner half a year later. That's an outstanding job by any standard.

Feelgood Story of the Year: Ken Condon's Irish 2,000 Guineas success with Romanised was another contender for the training award. And like Prendergast, Condon's classic victory highlighted the talents of many of those at racing's coalface who simply lack the ammunition to regularly compete at the top level. Condon himself made that point eloquently after Romanised's win. It only added to widespread delight for the popular Cork man.

Horse of the Year: The HRI awards got it right naming Alpha Centauri as Ireland's top performer for 2018. During the summer, over a mile, the giant grey looked all but unbeatable.

Curio of the Year: Saxon Warrior was retired to stud both a classic winner and a disappointment. That quite a lot of us got well ahead of ourselves in suspecting the son of Deep Impact to be an exceptional champion only proves how some people not only never learn but don't want to learn. Those four weeks between Newmarket and Epsom were fun. But the truly great ones never need excuses made for them.

Star of the Year: With the best will in the world it's a solo-show. What Rachael Blackmore is doing in the professional riding ranks is unprecedented. She really is a pioneer, even if she doesn't like the idea!

Racecourse of the Year: Its years since your truly was there but colleagues whose opinions aren't completely disposable sing Ballinrobe's praises. Since it's still a bit of an expedition to get there for most of them, such enthusiasm testifies to a great atmosphere generated by a sizable local audience and it means the Co. Mayo track gets the nod.

Going back might be a New Year Resolution, one actually worth keeping. As for now, hopefully 2019 will be a Happy New Year for you all.