Ten Predictions For Decade Ahead It's the season for predictions, not only 2020 but for the decade ahead. This is shaky ground. Even the truest Cassandra would have been stretched to come up with some of the outcomes from the last ten years. Hands up who in 2010 forecast Padraig Beggy becoming a Derby winning jockey? So here, complete with health warnings - and presuming Trump hasn't fried us all - are a few tentative racing prophecies for the coming decade with no responsibility whatsoever taken for the outcome. 1 - The sport's future revolves around horse welfare. If perceptions of systemic cruelty burrow into the public consciousness then racing is on a slippery slope. California in particular offers a glimpse of the potential future, desperately playing catch-up with how the thoroughbred industry is perceived there. The temptation to dismiss that as irrelevant to reality on the ground in Ireland proves irresistible for too long. Changing social attitudes in the US eventually ripple around the world. But a 'hard-man' refusal to acknowledge that, and invest meaningfully in public confidence, leads to some regrettable, and avoidable, own-goals. 2 - On the same theme, and at the risk of plucking a one-string banjo to death, the whip issue will be sorted by 2025. Racing will have been dragged kicking and screaming into a trial period where the stick is used for safety purposes only. Reaction within the sport will suggest the world is about to end. And guess what - it doesn't. There will still be a first, second and third. Punters will adjust their bets to new circumstances. The dumb situation whereby a jockey can break the rules and still win will be eliminated. Brief nostalgia for 'the good old days' when whip concerns could be blithely dismissed as ignorance will quickly fade to bemusement at how hitting a dumb animal to go faster could ever be considered a good look. 3 - Considering Google Glass is old hat, and Aidan O'Brien talks with work-riders on the Ballydoyle gallops, jockeys will shortly be able to communicate mid-race as well as call on screen data built into their goggles. It won't be long either before the first High Court case into a data protection breach after an owner gets hacked and is overheard telling their rider in running 'not today you gobshite.' 4 - Just as VAR becomes defunct in football it proves perfect for racing's stewarding system, ruling out any need for local stewards in interference cases. Instead professionals back at base examine every angle and make a decision before the horses have even returned to be unsaddled. Any appeals can take place later. This one is actually credible - it comes from Ger Lyons! 5 - Base is anywhere that Irish racing's single new administrative body decides it is. The 20th anniversary of the Irish Horseracing Authority morphing into Horse Racing Ireland sees a brand spanking new shiny version come into play - Racing Ireland. Of course any talk of the smell that requires such new branding is verboten - no mention of the war permitted. As part of this latest new 'transparent' era all administration and regulation is under one umbrella, a supposedly revolutionary step that in fact simply apes the situation in Britain. Keeping integrity separate from promotion is fine in theory. The theory simply became less and less convincing in practise. 6 - In 2028 Kingman becomes the first European sire ever to be advertised at a million Euro fee. 7 - An Anglo-Irish Task Force committee is launched with a 'priority' task of identifying why racing is becoming less and less fashionable when it comes to corporate sponsorship. The Task Force is sponsored by the online firm Bet69XL. The Task Force can find no reason for why the corporate world pursues other advertising avenues and concludes it is their loss. 8 - Racing Ireland, along with its authorised betting partner, launches its own dedicated digital channel. Rather than selling media rights Irish racing opts to back itself, offering a full range of streaming and betting options to a worldwide betting market. To cater for projected demand Ireland's fixture list more than doubles. The country's four all-weather circuits each plan to host up to 50 meetings per year with minimum ten-race programmes. Racing Ireland's chief executive, Michael O'Leary, says the new channel's 'USP' is exclusivity. He tells mainstream TV channels they must pay double for pictures from major festival meetings and if they don't like it they can f--k off. They respond by managing to rub along quite happily without Irish racing. 9 - The first jockey to openly declare themselves gay generates colossal levels of indifference, the vast majority of the public happily opting to not obsess about anyone else's sex life but their own. 10 - A vintage racing decade begins with perhaps its two finest equine performers at the peak of their powers. Pinatubo earns comparisons to Sea The Stars and Frankel after a superb Triple Crown winning 2020 campaign. It ends with Godolphin's little superstar sealing his legacy with Arc glory to complete a superb unbeaten career. By then Envoi Allen is only getting into his stride. He might not remain unbeaten but winds up with as dominant a record over fences as he had over hurdles. So having duly put the hex on these admirable couple of horses all that's left is to wish everyone a peaceful 2020 and a Happy New Decade.
