Horse racing needs a different approach to both ground conditions and pacemakers

Three Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) Referral Hearings were held last week into incidents arising out of the Galway Festival.

Jockeys Leigh Roche and Eoin Staples each received fines of €1,000 and 21 day suspensions for being over the limit for alcohol when tested at the track prior to racing on the Sunday of the Festival.

The two riders can consider themselves fortunate that it was the IHRB that caught them, rather than An Garda Siochana while driving to the track. They would have lost their driving licences for a minimum of three months if tested by the Guards instead of the three weeks of riding suspensions they were each given by the Referral Committee.

Amateur rider and racehorse trainer Declan Queally was also fined €1,000 over his conduct in the weighing room area following the running of a handicap hurdle on the same day at Galway.

Queally had confronted the race starter Joe Banahan in an “aggressive tone” but at the Referral hearing “apologised for his demeanour and raising his voice in his evidence and explained that he had returned to the weigh room annoyed as he felt he had not been afforded the opportunity to make the running at the start.”

Remarkably it was confirmed by all parties at the Hearing that Declan Queally “did not use crude or profane language during the interaction.” That must be a first for one of these heated exchanges between a licence holder and a regulatory official where not a single curse was uttered.

These latest fines and suspensions bring the total amount of sanctions handed out by the IHRB in relation to events at Galway to €7,665 in fines and 102 days of suspensions for jockeys.

Just as well that Galway is unique. If those levels of sanctions were being doled out every week of the year there would be no one left in the game to regulate.

Last week was a particularly difficult week for the sport in general with the incidents at Bellewstown, which forced the racing to be cancelled on two consecutive days.

Horses slipping up on the flat is extremely dangerous and it was lucky no one was seriously injured in either incident at Bellewstown.

The IHRB seem to be apportioning much of the blame on the dry summer and the impact that has had on ground conditions.

They may well be correct in that assumption, but I feel the sport is going to have to rely on more than a man with a stick to determine the safety of the racing surfaces going forward.

The climate is certainly changing and the impact that is having on grass growth and soil conditions is largely unknown.

Artificial watering of tracks has become the norm. Every track is doing it, but again I'd imagine we have no idea about the long term effect this may be having on different types of soils and grass species.

There are over 100 different species of wild and naturalised grasses in Ireland and I presume each one reacts slightly differently to prolonged dry spells and artificial watering.

Then you have the different soil types which have varying abilities to retain the nutrients that the grasses feed on. Artificially watering specific areas of tracks or just the ‘racing line' could well be having some impact on the unwatered sections. Does anyone actually know?

The UK racecourses have also had their fair share of issues with ground this year. In the first half of the year we saw Cheltenham and Haydock cancelling meetings due to deep holes appearing on the racetracks and as recently as last Saturday four races at Thirsk were abandoned due to a horse slipping on a bend in the opening race of the meeting.

Going forward, understanding the science of all of this will be crucial for the sport.

Switching subject, you don't need a scientist to tell you that racing has a problem with team tactics and pacemakers.

Under the current rules of the sport every horse is supposed to race solely on its own merits and must be ridden to achieve its best possible finishing position.

Here is what the IHRB rules state with regard to the running and riding of horses:

Rule 212A (i) Any person involved in the running and/or riding of a Horse in a Race who deliberately or recklessly causes or permits a Horse to run other than on its merits shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-rule.

Rule 212A (ii) Any Rider or other person who either rides a Horse in a Race or causes, contributes to or permits the running and/or riding of a Horse in a Race in such a way that the Horse cannot be seen to have been the subject of a genuine attempt to obtain from the Horse timely, real and substantial efforts to achieve the best possible place shall be guilty of an offence under this sub-rule.

In major races on the Flat, particularly Group One contests where there is a huge amount at stake for connections in terms of both prize money and breeding potential, horses are often declared to run with the specific intention of setting the pace for a more fancied stablemate.

The racing authorities in Ireland and the UK invariably turn a blind eye to this practice, but this situation is particularly unfair on the betting public.

A myriad of racing aids and other information, which may have an impact on a horse's performance, are made public prior to the running of every race - tongue straps, blinkers, cheek pieces, etc must be declared by the trainer at the same time the horse is declared to run. In the UK we are even informed if a horse had a wind operation prior to a race, but there is no obligation for a trainer to tell anyone that a horse in their care is only running to improve the chances of a stablemate.

These pacemakers are effectively non-triers and no “reasonable and informed member of the racing public” could possibly consider them to have run on their merits.

The authorities either need to ban the practice altogether and enforce their current rules or else change their rules to cater for them.

At least if the betting public were made aware in advance that one or more runners in a particular race were going to be used as pacemakers, they could make an informed decision based on that information.

As it stands everyone is left guessing as to whether or not a particular horse's chance will be sacrificed for a stablemate or if it will actually run on its own merits and this is unacceptable for a sport that is so reliant on the revenue generated by punters betting on these races.