Tip-Toeing Through The Minefield The seemingly interminable talks about a protocol that will allow the Turf Club drug-test on stud farms still go on. However Horse Racing Ireland, and specifically its chief executive Brian Kavanagh, has got involved in negotiations between the regulatory body and the Breeders Association. Kavanagh's ability to tip-toe through racing's political minefield is renowned. So maybe he can finally bring this to a satisfactory conclusion because God alone knows it won't be before time. Kavangh's is supposedly not a mediation role although it looks a lot like it. HRI helped commission the Anti-Doping Task Force report that issued a slew of recommendations intended to help preserve the Irish bloodstock industry's international reputation. That was almost 18 months ago. Everyone apparently agrees on the overall principles for an overall drugs strategy. And yet these specific talks are still stalled and are a handbrake on everything else. If nothing else it doesn't look good and HRI has a stake in making sure that stops. Managing that could ultimately come down to the Irish Thoroughbred Breeders Association being persuaded that old standards and prejudices simply won't cut it anymore. Arguing otherwise undercuts the very transparency everyone seems to agree in principle is necessary. Change has to happen and be seen to happen. So it's no longer feasible for the ITBA to insist that there's notice to breeders before drug-testers visit a farm. Nor can it argue for certain kinds of Therapeutic Use Exemptions (TUE's) anymore. And believing that testing should be done on a random selection basis suggestive of some giant lottery model is logistically impossible. The latter point indicates there remains a fundamental failure among many breeders to grasp a much bigger picture. If an overall drugs strategy is to be credible internationally then worrying about what the neighbours think if testing officials show up at the gate is hopelessly parochial and short-sighted. If there's no doping problem within the breeding sector, as everyone publicly insists, then it's in everyone's commercial interests to prove it. And it has to be done credibly, not in some half-baked manner such as basically creating two horse populations by pinning a merit badge on stock from farms who've opted to play ball. Failure to reach a workable resolution on this undercuts positive steps being taken elsewhere. Investment in new and better laboratory facilities has been significant. The appointment of the impressive Dr Lynn Hillyer as Chief Veterinary Officer has achieved rare unanimity in terms of approval. There is also an obvious reluctance to buck the international trend towards greater stringency in terms of fighting the drugs scourge. The phrases constantly repeated in relation to this are that the devil is in the practical detail and that it's more important to get it done right rather than quickly. But it's amazing how fast detail can be ironed out when the political will to stop talking and actually deliver is put in place. How vital such political can be in getting things done was illustrated by the introduction of the new Rule 212 'running and riding' regulations earlier this year. We were warned by various interest groups that the sky was about to fall in when an obligation to at least appear to try was introduced. It didn't and the sport's regulator suddenly had a chance to actually regulate which ultimately is in everyone's best interests. There were murmurings on the ground recently though that after the initial flurry of 'running and riding' cases a certain lethargy might have overcome various stewards panels, a feeling that the job was done, the message delivered and everyone could relax again. So there was a certain reassurance in how the Denis Hogan trained Meadows Cross got pulled under Rule 212 at Down Royal on Friday and wound up banned from racing for 42 days with jockey Shane Mulcahy suspended for five days. This Saturday will see the Irish Derby run on a building site at the Curragh in front of restricted audience basically shorn of anyone who might pay in simply for a day out. In fact if everyone with some sort of plastic entitling them to free entry show up the 6,000 crowd limit might suddenly have to become a lot more flexible. How ludicrous the whole thing is has become old news on this platform so anyone not wanting to address it anymore can avoid the following link: Derby debacle shows racing public just an optional extra It is interesting to note however how the Curragh board have already reviewed what has gone on in the six Curragh fixtures so far this year and voted that nothing will change in 2018. Both the Derby and the second leg of 'Irish Champions Weekend' will be held at the Curragh. It's a singular way of doing a critique - finishing the review before the main show. It only illustrates how naive some of us were in presuming common sense might yet prevail, especially if Derby day dissolves into a logistic nightmare. No one wants that to happen. But a prudent approach would surely be to see what happens first before voting on future options. Finally, perhaps the wisest statement during Royal Ascot came from Johnny Murtagh . He pointed out after Ryan Moore got it in the neck for just losing out in that epic Gold Cup that the winning jockey is always right and the loser always wrong. The race before the Gold Cup saw Olivier Peslier win the Ribblesdale after meeting interference up the straight. But because he won the great French rider was praised for his cool patience rather than any misjudgement. However of the riding performances last week James Doyle's stood out. He performed acrobatics under a slipped saddle to win the St James's Palace on Barney Roy. But it was his judgement throughout Big Orange's Gold Cup that was truly exceptional. It inevitably made one think how many races must Doyle have lost last year that Saeed Bin Suroor decided he wasn't good enough for his Godolphin runners. It also made one ponder how Murtagh's weary black and white statement might work when applied to trainers.
