Closed On Sunday

Sunday is the day most people are free to indulge in leisure time. It has also become the day Irish racing uses to stage many of its shop-window fixtures. The theory is that Sunday is when most people can go watch racing. Of course practise can differ from theory and there has been very little quibbling about cutting back the number of Sunday fixtures in 2019. It's a move that sends out a notable signal about racing's view of itself as a spectator sport.

There is a context to the cut in Sunday meetings. Racing faces staffing problems. The experiment in having three blank Sundays this year was widely acclaimed by industry professionals as a positive step both in terms of retaining current staff and making the sector potentially more attractive to others.

The staff issue is also happening amid continuing uncertainty over employment legislation. There is still no indication of whether or not racing will get a derogation from strict new working-time regulations. Even if one does come it's unlikely to allow at least some of the work practises of the past.

It's an environment with many practical implications for employers and their employees. And it means there is a logistical logic to increasing the number of blank Sundays next year to five with another five during the flat turf season when no flat racing will take place.

That makes sense from an industry point of view. But racing is also a sport with a dwindling public profile. It's supposedly desperate for greater exposure. Now it is voluntarily giving up valuable dates that differentiate it from its nearest racing rival in Britain, not to mention coughing up the market in general to other sports.

Of course the reality on the ground is that attendances on non-festival dates are on the slide no matter what day of the week they take place. Another reality is that the whole show is financially riding the rails of supplying pictures to bookmakers. Spectators are a marginal concern when tracks have essentially turned into big TV studios.

So maybe shuffling a few Sunday dates around can be construed as simply an acknowledgement of economic reality. No boots on the ground or an occasional absence on Ireland's major sporting day of the week may even be a logistical advantage.

But another bottom line conclusion is it's a step which presumes public interest must work around racing's schedule rather than the other way around. Irish racing's unique financial model may make that practically workable. But it's not just in theory that it comes across as a lamentably parochial outlook.

Quantifying tone is difficult but there's an inward-looking element to this that doesn't sit right with a lot of people. Staffing issues are real but they are more likely to be solved by something more substantial than an occasional Sunday free from racing, something which in reality is far from the same thing as a Sunday free form work.

It comes across as Irish racing cutting its nose off to spite industrial problems that are hardly as unique as is sometimes portrayed.

Lots of people work Sundays. If you accept it's part of the job then you get on with it. But closing the shop on Sunday to give the day off to those preparing the shop window seems a counter-productive sticking-plaster put over a deeper problem. And appearing not too bothered about being taken seriously as a spectator sport once again lets spectators know their place in Irish racing's priorities.

Talking of tone this is a link to some thoughts on the task that faces Irish racing in establishing credibility for its new anti-doping regime. A phrase or two might be familiar Racing Regulator Has Ground To Make Up In Credibility Stakes

Acknowledging that any jockey is only as good as the horses they sit on, or that there's nothing like good horses to improve a rider's confidence, shouldn't deflect from Donnacha O'Brien's splendid achievement in reaching a century of winners in Ireland this season. That a day later he followed up with a Group One double at Newmarket only underlined the depth of his substantial talent.

The struggle to keep on top of his weight cannot be underestimated. Just like his older brother, Joseph, O'Brien tends to dismiss the accomplishment by pointing out how other jockeys fight to make weight on a daily basis without the potential rewards he has. But it's hard not to notice the altitude he says it from compared to most of his colleagues.

After riding Ten Sovereigns and Fairyland to win the Middle Park and the Cheveley Park on Saturday O'Brien said he looked forward to not looking at the scales for a month or two during the winter and what he does next year will depend on what he sees when he steps back on.

It was another notably straightforward utterance from a notably fluent young man who's still in first place for quote of the year with that wonderfully self-aware response to being asked what his strengths are after he won the Oaks - "I'm Aidan O'Brien's son, that's my main one!"

The downside to that is judgements are often more harsh than they might otherwise be. So it's interesting to ponder the hypothetical question as to what sort of flak O'Brien's son might have got for the ride Ryan Moore delivered on Mendelssohn in Saturday night's Jockey Club Gold Cup in Belmont.

It's a game that used to be regularly played in relation to Joseph and has become a sort of shorthand for Moore getting it wrong.

He certainly seemed to get his fractions wrong at Belmont. Even those of us who suspect time only really counts when it comes to jail can spot how running the first six furlongs in 1:09:13 might leave most horses gasping at the finish of a mile and a quarter.

Even at that speed Moore was still chasing Irad Ortiz on Diversify. Ortiz knows the Belmont dirt a lot better than the Englishman so who knows what he was thinking: but did Mendelssohn have to be asked to chase him so closely and enthusiastically.

Christophe Soumillon must have thought the race had fallen into his lap on Thunder Snow. But such were the fractions even he got chinned by the rank outsider Discreet Lover. Less than two lengths behind was Mendelssohn which was an admirable effort in the circumstances.

The top west coast horse Accelerate might end up making Breeders Cup Classic speculation redundant. But if that Jockey Club effort hasn't bottomed Mendelssohn out after a long year, then he can still be legitimately regarded as a major contender at Churchill Downs next month.

A final thought on jockeys is that James Doyle faces an unenviable week trying to get down to 8.9 to ride Sea Of Class in this Sunday's Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe. He is a rare rider in being able to approach looking Donnacha O'Brien in the eye and the lowest weight he has done in the last year is 8.11.

Already pared, shaved and boiled to the edge of endurance, the thought of getting another couple of pounds off that must be a tortuous prospect. Especially since it's likely to count for naught anyway with Enable in the field. But good luck to him.