Irish Racing Review of 2009

Sea The Stars was brilliantly handled by John Oxx to deliver an unbeaten campaign of six Group 1 victories, becoming the first horse to land what can probably be called the modern-day Triple Crown of the 2,000 Guineas, Derby and the Prix de l'Arc de Triomphe.

Michael Kinane was in the saddle on all six occasions, which also included the Coral-Eclipse, Juddmonte International and Irish Champion Stakes. The 50-year-old displayed a typical cool head and tactical awareness on the Cape Cross colt throughout the season, not least in the “Arc” where the colt pulled too hard and needed to be extracted from an unpromising position.

Kinane's sense of timing was also apparent later in the year when announcing his retirement from a riding career which has produced 13 Irish Flat jockey championships and numerous big race successes worldwide including the Melbourne Cup, Belmont Stakes and the Epsom Derby three times. A “Contribution to the Industry Award” at the Irish Horse Racing Awards was due testament to one of the legends of Irish racing. He will be replaced as Oxx's stable jockey in 2010 by Fran Berry.

Ballydoyle trained colt's filled the minor placings behind Sea The Stars many times throughout the year but Aidan O'Brien can be more than satisfied with a season that produced classic wins in the Irish 2,000 Guineas for Mastercraftsman and and a fourth successive Irish Derby with Fame And Glory. The injury-prone Rip Van Winkle did him proud in the Sussex Stakes and QEII, while there was also Group 1 success for juveniles, St Nicholas Abbey, Beethoven, Jan Vermeer and Alfred Nobel.

However O'Brien's handling of Yeats to land a record fourth successive Ascot Gold Cup was probably the highlight. The eight-year-old son of Sadler's Wells, who had run dismally on his reappearance at a rain-sodden Navan, was produced in mint condition by his handler at Royal Ascot and stretched clear early in the straight for a famous victory.

O'Brien was yet again Irish Champion Flat trainer with 89 domestic wins and over €4.6m in win and place prize-money. Horse Racing Ireland's Flat Ambassador Johnny Murtagh bridged an 11 year gap to become Champion Jockey for the fourth time with 93 wins, while Gary Carroll was the undoubted star of the apprentice ranks with 44 victories.

Kevin Prendergast had a successful season with 43 winners but the veteran Curragh trainer really put the icing on the cake when saddling Kingsfort and Termagant to land the two big juvenile Group 1 races in the autumn – National Stakes and Moyglare Stud Stakes.

Ruby Walsh and Willie Mullins dominated the National Hunt scene. Walsh landed his seventh Irish jockey's championship with 121 wins, a phenomenal tally considering he missed a sizeable chunk of the season after having his spleen removed. He partnered a record seven winners at the Cheltenham Festival which included the Gold Cup on Kauto Star, the Champion Chase aboard Master Minded and Big Buck's triumph in the World Hurdle. Only a neck defeat for Celestial Halo by the Barry Geraghty-ridden Punjabi in the Champion Hurdle prevented a clean-sweep of the feature races on Paul Nicholls-trained horses.

Mullins, who was appointed as the National Hunt Ambassador this season, shared three Cheltenham successes with Walsh – Cooldine in the RSA Chase, Mikael d'Haguenet (Ballymore Novices Hurdle) and Quevega (David Nicholson Mares) – and went on to saddle an amazing 12 winners at the Punchestown Festival. The champion trainer's bumper team was as strong as ever but came up short at Cheltenham where Dunguib established himself as a star of the future. The Philip Fenton-trained gelding followed up at Punchestown and, although subsequently disqualified after testing positive for a wormer dose, has established himself as a top novice hurdle prospect this season.

Fenton was fined €3,000 for the indiscretion but fellow trainer Gavin Cromwell was hit with a record €5,000 fine after traces of a lasix-type drug were found in Crossdresser. The latter had already been given a 60 day ban and Cromwell fined €2,000 under the non-trier rule for the same Punchestown third-placing to No One Tells Me. An expensive day at the races!

Paul Carberry was another in trouble with the stewards after failing an alcohol breathalyser test. It was the former champion jockey's second misdemeanor in this regard and he was suspended for 30 racing days, effectively putting him on the sidelines this winter for over two months.

Racing was certainly not immune from the economic recession, and Horse Racing Ireland's funding was reduced twice following a mini-Budget earlier in the year and the recently announced 13% reduction in the Horse and Greyhound Fund for 2010. HRI has effectively seen a 30% drop in it's funding over the past two years, and Chief Executive Brian Kavanagh said: “In two years prize-money will have fallen by 21% from its 2008 peak of €60.4 million and will now be reverting to 2002 levels. HRI estimates that up to 1,500 jobs have been lost in the racing and breeding industry in the last eighteen months and regrettably the measures being announced today will lead to further job losses.” Kavanagh called for racing to be made self-financing in the future, and pinpointed the loss of betting levy through the exchanges and bookmakers offshore havens to be ended.

Attendances and betting figures have also suffered over the year. The Galway Festival is always an accurate barometer of the economic well-being not just of racing but also the country in general, and all seven days of the Ballybrit mid-summer meeting showed significant decreases in crowd and punting numbers. Betting with the bookmakers showed the biggest drop at nearly 25%, while the Tote aggregate was down by just over 20%. The total attendance for the seven days of 143,042 slipped 18% on the 2008 figure, although the Galway Hurdle crowd of 42,415 was far and away the best seen on an Irish racecourse this year.

The other landmark Festivals also saw a fall in their attendances. The five-day Punchestown Festival fared better than most with a 10% decrease, while the Leopardstown Christmas meeting was down by 14% with betting ring turnover falling by an alarming 31%. Sponsorship was another area for concern. Many important races such as the Troytown Chase and Leopardstown November Handicap were run without a sponsor, while companies such as Boylesports, William Hill, Pierse, AIG and Powers Whiskey all announced major cut-backs from their association with the sport.

However Listowel bucked the trend with total attendance over the three flagship days of their Festival meeting in September showing an increase on the corresponding figures in 2008. An eye-catcher was “Ladies Day” on the Friday with 24,895 patrons, an increase of 1,726 on the previous year. The Kerry National day crowd of 26,969 was just marginally down, while Tote betting also compared favourably with 2008 as the same three days showed a slight increase.

A number of trainers chose not to renew their licences, notably classic winning handler Frances Crowley and leading National Hunt figure Michael O'Brien who handed over the reins to his son-in-law Denis Cullen. A trio of equine giants from a golden era of Irish-trained hurdlers - Hardy Eustace, Brave Inca and Harchibald - all earned their retirement this year.

Back on the track Patrick Mullins set a new record among the amateur ranks by riding 50 winners in a season, while Derek O'Connor reached new heights between the flags when eclipsing John Thomas McNamara's tally of 526 to become the winning most point-to-point rider of all time.

The deaths of young apprentices Jamie Kyne and Jan Wilson in a fire at their North Yorkshire home shocked everyone in September. In the preceding months the racing world bade farewell to arguably the greatest trainer of them all Vincent O'Brien. The former master of Ballydoyle conquered both codes with three consecutive Grand National wins in the mid-50's and six Epsom Derby victories just some of the highlights in a remarkable career spanning five decades. The passing of trainers Tom Costello, renowned for discovering five Cheltenham Gold Cup winners, and James Bowe also occurred this year, while the Turf Club lost stalwarts in Ray Rooney, Jim Marsh and Maura O'Connor.

This year also saw a complete overhaul of the irishracing.com website. Relaunched to coincide with the Cheltenham Festival in March, we welcomed Irish Times racing correspondent Brian O'Connor as our resident blogger, and his opinions on admission prices and the concept of value for money on Irish racecourses certainly hit a nerve!

Alan Magee