Racing's 12 Tales Of Christmas 2016 1: Ride of the Year - Harzand’s Epsom Derby was Pat Smullen’s most important victory of this or any year. But his effort last July when riding Xsquared for more than a circuit of Killarney with the saddle slipping ever further up the horse’s neck was exceptional. Ireland’s champion jockey is renowned for his professionalism: this was proof of his brilliance. 2: Story of the Year — No contest, and no, it’s not HRI’s public bungling. That fascinates some people but the tale of Michael O’Leary and Willie Mullins’s battle of wills in September enthralled everyone, and far beyond racing’s narrow borders too. You don’t need to know anything about horses to recognise an old fashioned peeing contest when you see one. Who won? Who knows? 3: Horse of the Year — For once the voters for the HRI award got it right. Minding won five Group 1’s between a mile and a mile and a half. And there were excuses for both her defeats. Slapping her head off the stalls was hardly an ideal start to an Irish 1,000 Guineas and when the action was in the centre of the track it was hardly an inspired Ryan Moore effort to aim for the inner in the Irish Champion Stakes. Minding is Ireland’s Horse of the Year - Almanzor is Europe’s. 4: Eyes Through Fingers Moment — A Joe Keeling walkover. Having initially apologised for the way Brian Kavanagh’s reappointment as HRI chief executive was handled, Irish racing’s public ‘Duce’ was then invited to consider if he might do things differently given the same circumstances. To which Chairman Joe replied in the negative. He gets points for honesty but it came at the cost of confirming every prejudice there is about racing people and their capacity for entitlement. 5: Shock of the Year — Kieren Fallon’s famed ‘bouncebackability’ made news of his retirement due to depression a real shock even if he is 51. While it may be trite to view all of Fallon’s more regrettable past actions through the prism of his struggle with mental health neither can they conveniently separated. It was also unsettling to hear the Turf Club medical officer, Dr Adrian McGoldrick, explain how Fallon’s profound depression had remained undiagnosed despite a number of examinations elsewhere: hardly the medical profession’s finest hour. 6: Damp Squib of the Year — It’s tempting to say the fallout from the Anti-Doping Task Force which sailed to sea with great fanfare, delivered an impressively aspirational report to much mutual back-slapping, since when there’s been, well, not a lot really, so far. But there are plans for cobalt and ‘milkshake’ testing next year and laboratory testing is to be improved so maybe the report will have some impact although the key issue of Turf Club officials getting access to test a thoroughbred throughout its life remains the key issue. So let’s go with Air Force Blue, the latest brilliant two year old champion who beat just one home in a pair of classics and then beat none home in his final start: hard to put a glossy brochure spin on that. 7: Performance of the Year — Faugheen put up a remarkable performance to win the Irish Champion Hurdle in January. It earned him an official rating superior to anything Hurricane Fly ever achieved and equal to Istabraq’s best. Since those two names are at the very top of hurdling’s all-time pantheon the idea that Faugheen’s rating might err on the conservative side testifies to his quality and makes his absence through injury since then all the more regrettable. 8: Personality of the Year — That Mouse Morris enjoyed the greatest season of his stellar career less than a year after losing his son to carbon monoxide poisoning is one of those twists of fate that can seem almost mocking. Nothing as trivial as a horse race can be any sort of consolation but the strength and dignity Mouse showed in the glare of attention that came with winning both the Aintree and Fairyhouse Nationals was impressive. 9: Training Performance — No doubt there’s a 47-rated dray-horse somewhere out there with legs like glass which was miraculously cajoled into winning a ten grand handicap but the nature of things means it’s already forgotten by most. In contrast no one forgets Gold Cup winners. Time will no doubt make Don Cossack’s ‘blue riband’ victory seem inevitable. But for those of us doubters who reckoned there was an intangible ‘lack’ in him, Gordon Elliott’s achievement in getting him back from a King George fall, through an unlikely warm-up at Thurles, was outstanding. 10: Cute Hoors of the Year — The instinct to say nothing has been timorously illustrated throughout the shenanigans surrounding Brian Kavanagh’s reappointment as CEO of HRI. The board has been leaking like a sieve and various other worthies are very keen indeed on ‘privately’ expressing disquiet at the whole thing. But the absence of anyone prepared to publicly express the courage of their convictions is remarkable — Ruby Walsh being a notable exception. 11: Feel-Good Story — After such a debacle at the start of Cheltenham’s JLT, only the most flint-hearted could have begrudged the Zabana team Grade 1 consolation at the Punchestown festival. Winning a first Grade 1, and from a string of just eight horses, 70 year old Andy Lynch was the star of the show. And it was some show. 12: Glimpse of the Future — Joseph O’Brien’s first Group 1 success came with Intricately in the Moyglare, beating his father, Aidan, in a dramatic finish. Given the father’s continuing Ballydoyle reign and the son’s expansion on ‘The Hill’ it’s no huge Christmas prophecy to predict it’s unlikely to be a one-off. Neither is it any great prophecy to predict that racing in 2017 will prove to be very unpredictable. It is after all the nature of the game. Happy Christmas.
