Rewarding rule breaking is never a good look Last weekend’s showcase meetings at Leopardstown and the Curragh delivered some spectacular performances by some outstanding horses in front of solid crowds - 11,516 Leopardstown and 8,801 Curragh - but it always leaves a sour taste for me when I see a jockey rewarded for breaking the rules. Shane Foley picked up 11 days of suspensions for his riding of Hotazhell in the Royal Bahrain Irish Champion Stakes, but that won’t bother him in the slightest as he notched up the biggest win of his career. Foley was correctly adjudged by the stewards to have ridden carelessly, having allowed his mount to drift left in the home straight, which caused considerable interference to a number of rivals, most notably scuppering the chances of A Boy Named Susie who looked a serious contender at the time. The stewards determined that Shane Foley “was in breach of Rule 214 in that he had ridden carelessly and having considered his record (third offence) and the prolonged and continuous nature of the offence, they suspended him for 11 racedays.” The “third offence” refers to this season. In his career the total number of times Shane Foley has been suspended for riding carelessly is somewhere closer to 35 offences. According to Rule 214 “A Rider is guilty of careless riding if they fail to take reasonable steps to avoid causing interference or cause interference by inattention or misjudgement.” So here we have a vastly experienced rider who throughout his career has been regularly failing to take reasonable steps to avoid causing interference, or it is happening due to some level of inattention or misjudgement on his part. It appears that there is no provision in the rules to look at long-term patterns in riding behaviour by individuals. And an 11 day ‘holiday’ to spend some of the €125,000 he received as his share of prize money for winning the Irish Champion Stakes is hardly a sufficient deterrent to assure no future lapses on his part. Despite the defeats for A Boy Named Susie and the favourite Constitution River in the Irish Champion Stakes it still turned out to be an incredible weekend for the O’Brien family. Between Aidan O’Brien and his sons Joseph and Donnacha, the family won six races in a row on one of the biggest days of the year at the Curragh on Sunday and the trio were responsible for the first five horses home in the Irish St Leger. The family divvying up between them all four Group 1 races at the Curragh on Sunday was supplemented by Aidan picking up another Group 1 at Leopardstown on Saturday, while the icing on the cake was undoubtedly the 1-2-3 for the family’s horses in the final Classic of the season at Doncaster on Saturday won by the Joseph O’Brien trained Highwayman. This is domination on a level that even Willie Mullins might be envious of, particularly against international opposition. Six out of the seven Group 1 races run in Ireland last weekend had British-trained representatives. In total 40 British-trained horses raced at the Irish Champions Festival, but the O’Briens were unstoppable at the Curragh. Many were crowing on social media on Saturday about how good it was for the sport that eight different trainers had won races on the opening day of the Irish Champions Festival at Leopardstown. Well in their view it must be equally bad for the sport that one family dominated the second day of the Festival at the Curragh on Sunday to such an extent. Switching topics, it is alarming to see Paddy Power announcing the closure of another 100 betting offices. The high-profile bookmaker had 608 shops in Ireland and the UK at its peak, but these latest closures will reduce their estate to around 300 outlets. These closures coincide with Betfred recently announcing the closure of 132 shops in the UK and William Hill has also closed some 270 of their shops as tax changes and other commercial pressures impact the betting industry. Online giant bet365 also announced 340 job losses last week. At least they resisted the temptation to axe an additional 25 jobs to align with their brand message. Joking aside, it is a very worrying time for anyone working in the betting sector or those within horse racing who are dependent on its vitality. To finish on a brighter note, it was wonderful to see Saffie Osborne become the first female rider to win a British Classic when partnering chance ride Highwayman to victory in last Saturday’s St Leger at Doncaster. Who would have predicted that a four-race unplaced maiden at the end of June would be winning a Classic two and a half months later? But that is the type of fairytale that keeps so many people involved in the sport. I’m sure most people associated with smaller stables and average horses across these islands dream that one day they will hit the big time. For 24-year-old Saffie Osborne, Saturday was that day and it was most refreshing to see just how much that success meant to her.
