The positives far outweigh the negatives in horse racing For the past few weeks I have been watching the sport from afar in Spain and on the whole I've seen lots of positives. The efforts made by the groundstaff at Leopardstown to ensure the Dublin Racing Festival went ahead were nothing short of heroic under the circumstances. Images of lakes of water on the course in the days preceding the event gave the impression that the fixtures had no chance of taking place, but despite everything the weather threw at the course these two important days of action went ahead with some adjustments to the track and moving the Saturday card to the Monday. Exceptional Management of Weather Challenges Particular credit must also go to both Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) and their management team at Leopardstown regarding the swift rescheduling of the Saturday fixture and their handling of ticket refunds. All patrons that had purchased tickets for Saturday were given full refunds. Those who had booked reserved seating for Saturday had the option to use that ticket for the Monday, but if they didn't turn up they would also receive a full refund. You couldn't ask for anything fairer than that. The admission price for the rescheduled Monday fixture was also halved in price in a very positive customer first approach. The action on the track across the two days at Leopardstown was also top class, but once again the British trainers stayed away in their droves. Fergal O'Brien was the only British-based trainer to have a runner across the two days, Siog Geal finishing fifth in the opening handicap hurdle on the Sunday. Any thoughts of the DRF rivalling Cheltenham in the years to come are surely dead in the water at this stage. Article highlights: Leopardstown's groundstaff made heroic efforts to ensure the Dublin Racing Festival proceeded despite severe weather challenges HRI's customer-first approach included full refunds and half-price admission for rescheduled fixtures The IHRB wasted resources on cases against Philip and Charles Byrnes despite insufficient evidence Horse racing, despite its imperfections, stands far above the barbaric practice of bullfighting Questioning Prize Money Distribution Despite the huge prize money up for grabs across the weekend it still remains two days of trial races for Irish-trained horses ahead of the Spring festivals and as such I wonder if it would make any difference to the vast majority of the participants if the races weren't quite so valuable? Take the €100,000 mares handicap hurdle that Siog Geal ran in, The winner Cousin Kate had won an €18,000 race on her penultimate start and the runner-up Dameauscottlestown had landed a €12,500 contest on her previous outing. It wouldn't have altered the field at Leopardstown if the race was worth €80,000 and the remaining €20,000 could then be used to bolster other lesser races in the calendar. How the sport spends its money, specifically tax payers money, should always be scrutinised and analysed. Regulatory Shortcomings On that note I feel that the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) needs to learn some serious lessons from their recent Referral Hearing case against Philip Byrnes and his father Charles. They spent six months building cases against the pair, but it was plainly obvious from the evidence presented at the Hearing that they had no chance of convicting either man of any wrongdoing. This exercise will have cost a small fortune and put unnecessary additional strain on the IHRB's limited resources and we have to ask why? When they know they cannot win a case due to a lack of concrete evidence they need to realise that sooner and not waste money on barrister fees, expert witnesses and Referral Hearings. Unless they could clearly link betting activity on the Redwood Queen race directly to Philip Byrnes he was always going to be cleared of any wrongdoing as it is impossible to prove his actions were deliberate without a motive. The Futile Case Against Charles Byrnes The case against Charles Byrnes, alleging that a statement he gave in an interview to the Irish Field Newspaper was "prejudicial to the integrity, proper or good reputation of horse racing," was utterly futile. "It's a sad day if the Turf Club has to hold an investigation to please the faceless people on social media. We will answer any questions they have. We have nothing to answer to" was the statement made by Charles Byrnes. Nothing in those three sentences amounts to any breach of any Rule and the IHRB should have realised that before charging the trainer. In fact, it could be argued that Byrnes' assumption "that it would be a sad day if the Turf Club has to hold an investigation to please the faceless people on social media," is not too far off a summary of what subsequently transpired. The only logical conclusion from the case is that the IHRB went ahead with the Referral Hearing in order to be seen to be doing something in the face of a social media storm, knowing full well that they hadn't sufficient evidence to achieve a judgement in their favour. Horse Racing vs. Bullfighting: A Stark Contrast Changing the subject, I visited the city of Seville for the first time last week and was surprised to see how ingrained bullfighting is in the local culture. In a similar way to the racing themed pubs we see across Ireland with images and momentos of famous horses, trainers and jockeys, the bars and restaurants of Seville are filled with bullfighting associated memorabilia. The centrepiece is invariably a bull's head mounted on a plague with a description about the bullfight it was killed in. One restaurant I visited had nine of these bulls displayed on their walls, which gives some indication of the scale of the killings. The sport of horse racing is constantly fretting about how the sport is perceived by non-racing people and strives to portray a sanitised public image. Maybe it should take a leaf out of the Seville bullfighting manual and stand proud. Horse racing may not be perfect, but warts and all it is still a million miles removed from the barbaric practice of bullfighting.
