Culture Change

Asking how long culture-change takes is like asking how long is a piece of string. But it's ultimately in everyone's best interest that the culture surrounding racing's 'Non-Trier' regulations changes quickly. Encouragement that the new Rule 212 might provoke that rarest of racing feats - actual change - comes from the voices currently being raised against it. Racing is onto something here. What's required now is perseverance with this badly needed change of regulatory culture.

The Turf Club's preparedness to stand over its new rule could be tested in the fallout from Friday night's Dundalk drama when Aidan O'Brien was fined €2,000 and the Coolmore owned Music Box was banned for 42 days.

The suspicion since Rule 212 came into force was that stewards would flex their new muscle on little guys such as those involved in Gowran's three-finisher Beginners Chase. They don't come bigger than Music Box's connections. O'Brien has called the penalties "bizarre." It's the sort of language that indicates appeals are likely which means the heft of the world's most powerful bloodstock operation being brought to bear.

Some opening salvoes have already been fired from various quarters along the lines that jockey Wayne Lordan was unlucky and that the penalties were harsh considering what has routinely been left unchallenged before. It's the "see worse every day" line and it's an implicit acknowledgement of just how bad things have been, and how marginalised the regulatory role had become.

Prior to January 21 the policing of Irish racing's running and riding rules were a joke. The wording of the old Rule 212 was no different to any other major racing jurisdiction except penalties couldn't be made stick. Those able to afford to do so could drive a legal coach and horses through the massive hole that made it all but impossible to prove intent. That that hasn't stopped the same wording being effective elsewhere indicates a lot of things, perhaps, most of all, how litigious we are here.

The crucial part of the new rules is that jockeys must be seen to make an effort. It's not if a jockey should or could have been placed better. A rider must be seen to try. It demands racing professionals take account of those policing them and those watching and betting on them from the stands. And it doesn't seem to be percolating into the culture yet.

Whatever arguments might emerge at any appeal, had the stewards not held an enquiry into Music Box's run then they could have been quizzed by most reasonable and informed punters as to why not. It doesn't matter if it might be judged harsh in comparison to what's gone before. There's a different rule now, one made necessary by what has gone on before, and Lordan broke it.

What's different is that stewards can now make things stick. Even the disclosure that Music Box gave a couple of coughs after the race didn't deter a panel who probably more than anyone were aware of the context in which they were operating. In the past those coughs would have been pounced on as an escape route. To the credit of the Dundalk stewards, they didn't take the easy way out.

Lordan's ride was hardly unique. In the enquiry he said he had given her "a nice educational ride." In the past O'Brien has praised other jockeys for educating runners in races. And helping horses to learn is fine. But under the rules of racing it is a secondary consideration to achieving a horse's best position.

Maybe Music Box did achieve her best position at Dundalk. But Lordan can hardly be said to have been seen to have tried particularly hard to help her do so. And that's not good enough anymore.

The cry from the jockeys and trainers associations is that pandering to punters, as it has been described, threatens horsemanship. An obtuse picture of horses having to be whipped has been painted and it's nonsense. That they're so unhappy is perhaps the clearest sign that Rule 212 is making a difference. It would mean nothing had changed if some of those directly affected weren't griping and change is desperately necessary.

Nevertheless we're likely to continue hearing such diversionary red-herring arguments from some professionals, some of whom have long since paid only lip-service to how their sport is perceived by those on the outside, those same outsiders whose punting tax continues to keep the show on the road.

Ultimately, and for their own sake, those at racing's coalface need to shift the cultural goalposts on a range of issues fundamental to their own self-interest. Effective 'Non-Trier' Rules are just one element. It will require time and it will require Turf Club brass to take a long term view and not baulk at short term protest.

Perhaps it might help to recall the howls of protest that greeted the no-smoking rules in public places. We were assured that not being allowed to smoke in pubs would bring about the end of civilisation. Now the idea of lighting up in an enclosed space is as ridiculous as it is culturally abhorrent.

With racecourse stewards taking the initiative to an extent near unimaginable just a few months ago, attention will increasingly be on Appeals panels and how they respond.

With that in mind it was interesting to see how even though Turnofthesun's 42 day Gowran ban was confirmed at a recent appeal hearing, and jockey Andrew Lynch's five day suspension was also confirmed, the horse's trainer Matthew Smith had his €2,000 fine quashed, the logic being that having given his instructions what happened thereafter was out of his hands.

Each hearing has to be heard on its own merits. However it's hard to escape the idea that while such a ruling might be appropriate in these circumstances, the logic involved could provide a loophole for other trainers in other cases.

Separately, Horse Racing Ireland's announcement of significant changes to next season's National Hunt programme caught many by surprise in terms of their scale. It's a sign of the scale of discontent at jump racing's coalface but such a significant move to try and recalibrate the programme for those not at elite level will be widely welcomed.

Perhaps by racecourses as much as anyone. After all more races work to their advantage. So do more runners under the media rights deal which is increasingly the driving force behind so much. Keeping field sizes up is about hard cash as well as competitiveness.