Ten Random Christmas Stocking Fillers First of all, a rallying call: racing is brilliant. It really is - and not just because its cheerleaders say so. The cheerleading actually does the game no favours. After a while it becomes a drone blotting out any sort of criticism. And the thing with criticism of any merit is that it comes from a basis of enthusiasm. It's rooted in a desire to change things for the better. No one wants to be cribbing all the time but all cheerleading does is maintain the status quo. That's no good to anyone. 2: When did racing become a 'minority sport' in Ireland? There have always been those prepared to dismiss it, even its credentials as an actual sport. But dismissing it as a 'minority' anything wouldn't enter their heads. Yet a trend seems to have begun which attempts to reduce racing to mini-curio status, often by those who dissolve into delirium at parish-pump pastimes, second-rate football, or faddish trends like MMA and the gurning of the depressingly ubiquitous McGregor. Introspective 'who we are' narratives are incessant these days. But for a huge number of Irish people the business and sport of horses and racing really are part of what and who we are. It may not be fashionable to say so but never forget, Mr McGregor, that nothing dates faster than trendy. 3: No doubt those at the helm of France Galop have a lot of people cribbing at them too. But in relation to their decision last Spring to introduce a weight allowance for female jockeys they look to be on the money. And not just because they've heeded the advice to cut allowance from 2kg to 1.5kgs next year. Evidence of a 165 per cent increase in the number of wins by female jockeys since the change, and a doubling in the number of rides taken by women in France, indicates that much needed change is occurring. How long will it be before authorities closer to home acknowledge that maintaining the status quo here is just a cop out. 4: Noel O'Brien's death will cast a pall over Christmas for a lot of people lucky to have known the Turf Club's senior National Hunt handicapper. Noel was one of the good guys, cheerful and unfailingly helpful, he was also a professional down to his fingertips. That he could combine such professionalism with huge popularity testified to a rare personality. There's consolation in knowing that he is freed from the impact of his long illness. But it isn't much. 5: If Davy Russell goes on to win the jockeys title this season - and he's a dozen clear of Ruby Walsh who is out injured until March - it will be a notable response to the adversity of last summer's 'punch-gate' incident with Kings Dolly at Tramore. Russell's 'bouncebackability' is renowned. But by any standards a third championship would count as satisfying. That he's at the top of his game at 38 years of age only cements the view that we may have been enjoying the finest crop of riding talent ever produced by this country over the last two decades. Walsh and Barry Geraghty are 38 as well. It gets remarked upon that the following generation hasn't managed to dislodge them. But just consider what they're up against. 6: A record €63.3 million in prizemoney is the headline figure from Horse Racing Ireland's budget for 2018. But perhaps the most interesting figure on the back of its release was news that the €9.6 million figure allocated for integrity services in 2017 wasn't fully utilised by the Turf Club. In fact the €9.1 million for integrity in 2018 is an increase of nine per cent on what was spent this year. And you just think, what? There's not enough improvement required in the regulation of racing here that nearly a million couldn't be spent on it? How many full-time professional officials could be hired to work at the coalface for that? And haven't the Turf Club not learned the cardinal bureaucratic rule - whatever the budget is has got to be spent in order to justify your existence. 7: Kieren Fallon's autobiography 'Form' is something of an anti-climax. We are promised a searingly honest account of his life. Instead it often reads like something of a cut and paste job. There are intimate moments such as the impact on of his sister's death, and his account of the realities of a jockey's life in terms of wasting. But the first mention of his ex-wife comes more than a third of the way through the book when we find out she used to be an apprentice jockey and won races on a horse called Crofter's Climb. It feels like we find out as much about Crofter's Climb as we do about Julie Fallon and their family together. Eventually the tone of the book starts to wear as thin as the material one suspects the ghost-writer got to work with. 8: That's British racing's zero-tolerance approach to steroids shot then. Everyone accepts Our Little Sister tested positive for a steroid almost a year ago. But despite strict liability put on trainers on the back of the Godolphin doping controversy in 2013, Our Little Sister's trainer Hughie Morrison got fined a grand. So it seems no one's to blame. Apparently the BHA's disciplinary panel took into account how Morrison hired a private investigator, paid for a hair-sample and offered a reward which helped convince them the trainer didn't seem the kind to break the rules like this. No doubt that's correct. But rules, by definition, are supposed to be one-size-fits-all. And this feels a very discretionary ruling which sets an unfortunate precedent. 9: Speaking of hair-testing, a couple of years ago we were assured it was a potential magic wand in the detection of drugs cheats and its standardised introduction across all major racing jurisdictions was just over the horizon. It still seems to be out of sight, maybe even out of mind. 10: This is the time to wind up with a Christmas selection but instead here's a real festive hint: those really in the know are not in the habit of flogging tips to the public. If the tips are any good why would you bother. There, don't say I don't give you anything - Happy Christmas.
