Attention Seeking

Attention is great when it's positive, not so much when it's negative. For instance the Coolmore Stud partnership is supposedly wary of publicity. That's not true. It's just bad publicity they don't like. Events, dear boy, do, however, have a habit of dictating what kind you get. The Breeders Cup is designed to attract attention to the sport in the US. But the 36th renewal this week will be the most fraught ever because such notice could turn out to be good or very bad indeed.

The decision to keep this Breeders Cup at Santa Anita makes such anxiety inevitable. The Los Angeles track had to be temporarily closed down in March after a glut of equine fatalities in the months before. After extensive work on the surface the fatality rate has been nowhere near the same since racing resumed for the autumn.

The reputational damage has long since been done however. This is an environment where the governor of California recently told the New York Times: "I'll tell you, talk about a sport whose time is up unless they reform. That's horse racing. Incredible abuses to these precious animals and the willingness to just spit these animals out and literally take their lives is a disgrace."

Aidan O'Brien is among those to have backed up assurances by the Santa Anita authorities over safety. There has also been no repeat of the winter/spring season disaster when 30 horses were killed either racing or in training. But there's no escaping how Santa Anita has become a welfare focal point in the US and that assures even more attention than usual on this Breeders Cup.

Rather like the welfare apprehension that accompanies National Hunt racing's biggest shop window, the Aintree Grand National, an entire sport and industry will be keeping everything crossed the two days goes ahead without incident. Because any incident, especially one that requires a horse to be put down, will invariably become the focus of attention even if it's a result of nothing but bad luck.

Whether it is wise to have persevered with the under fire Santa Anita in such circumstances is a futile debate now although it might indicate failure to appreciate US racing's big-picture crisis of credibility among the wider public who get the opportunity to tune in to mainstream national TV coverage across America.

The sport in the US still refuses to help itself by insisting on being world racing's grim outlier in relation to medication, a factor which automatically invites speculation about potential links between drugs and any spike in the on the on-track attrition rate.

But then a self-inflicted injury such as the shambolic nature of last year's Triple Crown winner Justify testing positive for a banned substance after winning the Santa Anita Derby, and the California Horse Board's subsequent unilateral behaviour which invited automatic allegations of a cover up, all smack of an industry largely oblivious to the winder context and making it up as it goes along.

That wider context means the most important outcome on Friday and Saturday will be that all runners and riders pull up sound and healthy. Like it or not, there are agendas that will be happy to pounce on any other outcome. That isn't the type of attention US racing wants. But, counterintuitively, it could be argued it is the kind it needs to start fundamentally changing for the better.

Negative publicity is hardly unknown for racing over here either. The latest revolves around Supreme Racing Club, allegations of financial misdemeanours from some of its members, and Horse Racing Ireland's decision to freeze entries and declarations from an operation that just happens to have the highest rated steeplechaser in training, Kemboy.

The prospect of some members taking a legal route with their concerns, along with reports of the matter being raised with the Gardai and the Criminal Assets Bureau, means circumspection is a prerequisite when it comes to comment. But it's fair to say there's widespread unhappiness among members towards racing's authorities, particularly Horse Racing Ireland.

HRI's decision to freeze Supreme's account as they await information from the club's management has certainly provoked ire on the basis that it penalises ordinary members who've done nothing wrong. The response from HRI seems to boil down to them not being able to do much more since ownership disputes have almost invariably wound up going down the legal route and registration spells out that it is for racing purposes rather than title.

There are a couple of general points worth examining though, such as a comment by Supreme Racing Club's Irish representative Jim Balfry on this site earlier this year that when the ownership vehicle was set up the intention was to "go in with Donald McCain in England but the BHA were making it hard for us." The questions 'why' and 'how' lift right out now the situation has come to this.

Then there is HRI's repeated requests for Supreme to furnish it with various contact details of its members and the share breakdown in each horse. Failure to provide these ultimately led to the account being frozen. This, according to HRI itself, has always been basic information required under its own directives for owner registration. So how come it's looking for it?

A new directive was introduced in July which meant a number of registered racing clubs, including Supreme, were required to transfer to a syndicate model. According to a document seen by the Irish Times, this was made known to Supreme over a year ago. But no action seems to have been taken until October. Again the question 'why' lifts out.

It can also be employed in relation to the near farcical situation last week when 11 of the 12 entries for the Group One Futurity were from the one ownership and stable. Only Qatar Racing's Kameko was put against Coolmore/Ballydoyle. On the back of Doncaster being rained off, and the race switched to Newcastle's all-weather on Friday, it will be interesting to see if others are now prepared to throw their hats into the Futurity ring.

But the reality of just how rarefied such Group One air is got reinforced yesterday with a €250,000 Criterium International at Longchamp that first got reduced to a 'match' before in turn getting further reduced to little more than a lucrative gallop for the German winner Alson.

Ballydoyle, who'd taken Wichita out because of the ground, relied on Armory who spectacularly failed to fire. Apprentice Shane Crosse missed out on a top-flight opportunity and was lucky to escape serious injury when Joseph O'Brien's supplemented Lady Penelope got upset in the stalls and had to be withdrawn. One of the most prestigious juvenile races on the calendar wound up verging on absurd.

For once Frankie Dettori didn't do a flying dismount after what was his 19th top-flight win of the year. He said he didn't want to chance one on mucky ground and risk a twisted ankle ahead of the Breeders Cup. Or maybe after such a bloodless victory even the ebullient Italian felt theatrics would jar.

Finally, some unease has been expressed in this direction at news of the former champion hurdler Faugheen being sent down the novice chase route this winter. The view seems to be that asking such a gilded performer to start over fences at the age of 11 is unfair.

It's not hard to see how such sentiment might arise in the specific case of such a popular horse as 'The Machine' undoubtedly is. But in an overall context it's surely misplaced. Either racing can stand over the challenge steeplechasing presents or it can't. If it's a fair and reasonable test for an ordinary horse then it has to be for a luminary too.