Shark Hanlon fine - ‘I think he barely said hello before he brought up the ground at Listowel’

Trainer Shark Hanlon was fined €250 for a dispute over the ground at Listowel. He was fined by the Listowel stewards following a heated argument in the weighing room with Clerk of the Course Paul Moloney.

The Raceday Stewards were satisfied that Mr John Joseph Hanlon was in breach of Rule 272 (iii)(verbal abuse towards an Official).

Hanlon has frequently made his discontent known around overwatering at summer jumps meetings and the trainer of Hewick later accepted he was verbally abusive towards Moloney and has since apologised for his actions.

On this week’s Irish Angle show, Johnny Ward and Paddy Flood spoke to Emma Nagle about the incident and gave their thoughts on the ongoing issue that overwatering is affecting smaller yards.

Hanlon frustrated with overwatering

Johnny Ward reiterated on the show that Hanlon has made no secret of his opinion: “He was vocal about it to me at Tramore on Saturday. I think he barely said hello before he brought up the ground at Listowel as I was walking into the parade ring.

“The big problem here and I've tried to do a bit of digging on this, I haven't really found anything out in relation to the rights and wrongs of it - the red flag with this issue is that basically there's an accusation of deceit.

“You have an accusation here where Shark is basically saying that it was watered and they said it wasn't, principally down the back straight, that's a serious, serious issue. I don't know who's actually right. I'm not going to make a judgment on this.

“I think Paul Moloney obviously has had his share of tribulations as a groundsman, with a mad incident in Limerick in the last year or two that doesn't need to be brought up again. But this isn't good.

“In general I agree with Shark, I feel that, as much as safety is the main concern, summer jumping is summer jumping. If you don't want to run the horse, don't run him or her.

“There has to be some avenue - I don't have an issue with good ground, even a little bit of good to firm, for summer jumps. What do they do in America? What do they do in Australia? If you don't want to run the horse, don't run him or her.

“There has to be some avenue for a horse that wants nice ground in the summer. And without going into the whole climate change debate, it's very hard to forecast weather at times now, it could lash rain here and three miles down the road they get nothing.

“The watering of tracks is an inexact thing, and even AI wouldn't be able to solve it. But I do feel in general with Shark on his contention about this, and it seems to be something I talk to him about every second day at summer tracks.”

Tough for small yards

Jockey coach Paddy Flood was in agreement with Ward and continued: “You have to see his point. He's declaring his horse on good firm ground, he's expecting good ground.

“If there's a bit of water thrown on it, it's perfectly fine to keep it safe, but they're obviously overdoing it and this is what Shark thinks - they're overdoing it.

“Times in hurdle races in the summer would suggest it's a lot slower than it used to be. The standard is probably a second or more slower in hurdle races. So they are definitely putting more water on it recently.

“Shark's horses aren't Willie Mullins's - they're not up to Willie Mullins' grade.

“These horses need to have their chance. It was always that way - you brought your lesser-grade horses for the summer, kept a couple of nice ones for Galway, that's what kept your business going in the summer, because you can't compete in the winter with the big boys.

“So if you can't compete in the summer or the winter, trainers have every right to get frustrated.”

Watch the Irish Angle in full