Picking Up The Tab

News that the Minister for Finance Pascal Donohue will review his decision to increase the rate of betting tax from one per cent to two per cent looks a shrewd political two-step. It's no doubt a reaction to the political implications of 1,500 job losses in betting shops. But if the bookmaker lobby's argument, which includes taxing gross profits rather than turnover, is persuasive enough then it looks good for both betting shops and Horse Racing Ireland. Racing's ruling body doesn't care how the money is raised so long as it benefits. So there's a potential win-win all round.

HRI finally got its way at last month's budget but one apparently counter-intuitive part of its argument always was how it seemed fine with the potential consequence of hundreds of betting shops closing down. Since a major part of the last media rights deal involved supplying pictures to betting shops such closures could be interpreted as cutting the financial ground out from underneath itself.

Even in the wider social context that the betting industry operates in now, for many increasing the tax rate still felt like a regressive move. Ultimately though any new political flexibility probably comes down to jobs - and votes -especially in smaller towns. And it's hard to argue against any move with the potential to prevent people from losing their livelihood.

If racing's scuttlebutt is correct and the eventual cost of the new Curragh gets closer to €80 million rather than the original estimate of €65 million it's hard to see it being any kind of win for anyone.

Last year the projected cost was raised to €72 million and now with issues such as the need to enlarge the parade ring and a final finish to construction pushed back to February there appears to be prevailing private suspicions about the final bottom line figure getting even higher. Not that anyone seems ready to publicly air them.

HRI's chief executive Brian Kavanagh has said that costs on the biggest racecourse development in Irish racing history can fluctuate either way and a final definitive bottom line figure won't be possible until the project is finished. He isn't alone in holding the line although a political phrase involving a can, a road and kicking comes to mind on the back of it.

Kavanagh has confirmed that voting shares on the Curragh board remain divided at a third each between the state, through HRI, the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board, and private investors. Those investors include some of racing's most powerful names such as Coolmore, Godolphin and JP McManus. They initially put €5 million into the development when it was launched.

Further private investment has been raised since with a view to the Curragh beginning operations debt free next year. But identifying precisely who has contributed what has become a much more opaque exercise since those publicity hungry launch days back in 2015. So the obvious question, hypothetical or not, is who's going to pick up the tab if there is indeed a financial overrun?

It won't be the IHRB so that leaves private investors and/or the state.

HRI has already put €30 million of tax-payers money into the Curragh and is committed to delivering a flagship facility for Irish flat racing. If it looks like having to pony up more public money into the project then it surely isn't unreasonable to let the public know. Maybe such a possibility will become more clear after the HRI board looks its 2019 budget on December 10.

No one seems particularly keen on commenting publicly either on what the deal will be if private investors have to dip into their pockets again. The one third equal voting shares on the Curragh board might be unchanged. But it's not unreasonable to assume that people coughing up substantial amounts of money might feel entitled to something in return, perhaps maybe in terms of equity.

The British Horseracing Authority hardly covered itself in glory last week. It was forced to prevent Earl Of Bunnacurry from running in a race at Wolverhampton after the horse was incorrectly reassessed following a win at Southwell earlier in the month. The horse's original 6lb penalty for that victory allowed him into the Wolverhampton race. But he should have been hiked by 9lbs.

A somewhat tortuous technical explanation of what was essentially a bureaucratic cock-up was accompanied by an apology to the connections of Earl Of Bunnacurry and an offer of compensation for inconvenience.

The BHA got lucky in some respects. The horse's trainer Gavin Cromwell is widely regarded as one of the good guys in the game and offered a reasonable opportunity to go nuclear he was nevertheless content to put it down to "human error and these things happen."

But on the back of other red-tape incidents such as Magic Pulse at Nottingham last month, when the horse was mistakenly announced as withdrawn only for the stewards to insist on him then not running, this Earl Of Bunnacurry incident can hardly have generated much public confidence in the BHA's day to day administration.

No doubt we will be reminded again and again this winter that jumping is the name of the game. Except of course when it isn't. Apparently Haydock made their fences a stiffer test of jumping for their first National Hunt card of the season. The outcome was unhappiness among many trainers and jockeys including Nico De Boinville who said they were unfair and too stiff.

Admittedly that was after Might Bite's flame-out in the Betfair Chase. As is the way of these things Daryl Jacob on the winner Bristol De Mai was as happy as Larry. But if jumping is indeed the name of the game then the bottom line is that Might Bite let the side down. No one however is going to pretend Saturday's result is anything other than the first step in a long season.

With that in mind, and taking into account all the unease over the fences, there appeared to be plenty to like in particular about Thistlecrack's performance in third. It was a first run in almost a year for the former King George winner. No doubt a lot of us probably thought he was a back number compared to his pomp.

Instead he tanked through much of the race and kept at it well under a ride that in the circumstances was understandably sympathetic .What let Thistlecrack down was jumping. He was repeatedly slow. But he also repeatedly came back on the bit which suggests his enthusiasm is still intact.

That all-important jumping might not come under such pressure elsewhere, perhaps like at Kempton, and there's 12-1 floating about Thistlecrack to win another King George next month. That sort of offer appeals a lot more than sevens about Bristol De Mai for the same race and half that again about Might Bite.

Finally, Enable might be the Queen of European racing and the Australians have Winx. But Japan looks to have its own superstar filly in Almond Eye. At no point during Sunday's Japan Cup did she not look in full control. Admittedly Aidan O'Brien's Capri was out with the washing on very fast ground in Tokyo so form lines can't be taken literally.

But if Almond Eye and Enable eventually wind up clashing in the 2019 Arc then that really will be a win-win all around.