Paddy Flood on Tom Kelly ride: 'If the trainer says, "No, I wasn't happy with the ride," then they're scot-free'

Charles Byrnes was back in the headlines last week when conditional jockey, Tom Kelly, was suspended for 14 days and the horse, Glin Road Boy, for 60 days, after the stewards found the horse was not ridden to achieve his best placing after finishing second in Sligo.

Cathal Byrnes said after the 2m1f handicap hurdle that he wasn't totally satisfied with the ride, while Tom Kelly felt the horse had made a noise and he was trying to ride him to get home.

From the stewards' report, Tom Kelly stated that his instructions were to get his mount to finish out the race in the best possible position. The owner's rep for Charles Byrnes confirmed the instructions, said the horse was fit and healthy, and that he was perfectly happy with the ride up to the last hurdle, where he would have liked to have seen Tom being a bit more forceful up to the line.

Johnny Ward, Paddy Flood and Emma Nagle discussed the incident on the latest episode of The Irish Angle.

Who takes responsibility?

Journalist Johnny Ward has strong views on his dissatisfaction with the system: "Tom Kelly is the story here, because Tom Kelly had literally ridden his second winner in five seasons in the Connacht National the night before, trying to get going again, a great win for him for Eric McNamara.

"Then he has a couple of rides for Charles Byrnes recently, he rides this horse, and I hadn't watched the race but I watched it back on Wednesday morning - it's mad, mad, eye-catching.

"There's just something about this: who is responsible for how a horse runs? Is it the jockey? Is it the trainer? Is it the owner?

"Obviously the horse can dictate to a degree, but the horse is ultimately following instructions from above.

"Tom Kelly, who's trying to get himself going, now has to deal with this heavy, heavy punishment and so does the owner.

"When Tom Kelly is called in, I'll defend the stewards here, because the stewards hear so much in relation to running and riding inquiries. It's the nature of the game, and they'll hear stuff and be like, "Okay, we disagree with that."

"Often they're going to throw their eyes up to heaven. Vinnie (Finegan) has spoken about this before and written about it.

"There's something about this that is deeply, deeply unsatisfactory, because two individuals, the horse and the jockey, are being very heavily punished.

He was 22-1, which makes it highly likely the horse wasn't especially well fancied on his stable debut.

"The jockey got a heavy, heavy punishment, and I wonder - do we need to look at the system? I'm not blaming the stewards, because they followed the system. There's something about this again that just doesn't sit well with me.

A strong rider

Former jockey and leading analyst Paddy Flood agreed with Ward and said: “I saw Tom Kelly riding a winner the day before in a chase - he was strong. He used his left hand with the stick, he used his right hand with the stick, pushed the horse to the line and basically looked like a really, really strong rider.

“Then I watched the race in Sligo and my thought straight away was: “Why isn't he pushing that horse? Why hasn't he got the stick out? Why isn't he hitting it?

“To my eye and this is just my opinion - he blatantly didn't let the horse run to his best position. He didn't. The stewards saw that and he was punished accordingly.

“But why did Tom Kelly not push that horse? What was he told going out, for him to decide not to? Because a horse was making a noise - that's nonsense. That's absolute nonsense.

“Even if a horse is making a noise, he's still galloping forward, he's still on the bridle, he still has a lot of horse left. He's done his best to finish third or fourth and he's finished second, hard held.

“There's no punishment for the trainer. The jockey and the horse have got the punishment.

“When you see a claiming rider who's struggling to get rides and needs to be riding at these meetings - riding for Charles Byrnes and Eric McNamara and everyone - they're going to follow instructions to an absolute tee, because they haven't got enough money not to, and they don't have enough rides during the year not to.

“So my open-ended question would be: what was he told to do? And we don't know, because it's not in the stewards' rulebook to be able to say, "Did you definitely tell him to do that?" and if the trainer says, "No, I wasn't happy with the ride," then they're scot-free.

"I don't know how you'd fix it or how you'd go around it. But the ride Tom Kelly gave that horse, compared to the ride the night before when he won a chase, was chalk and cheese.

"For me, there was no reason - if the saddle had slipped, or if the rider himself was struggling with a shoulder injury or something - but that doesn't seem to be the case at all.

"He was basically not pushing the horse or letting him run to his best ability. I don't know how you stop it, to be honest."

Difficulty establishing facts

Johnny Ward emphasised the point on having sympathy for young jockeys when caught up in this situation. He continued: “What was the jockey supposed to say? If he'd done the old "no comment," I'd nearly prefer that, because what he said just isn't borne out. At the same time, I have to have some sympathy for him.

“He's had two winners in five years, he's trying to come back into it. I'm not jumping to any conclusion here, I want to be fair but you have to have some sympathy for the jockey.

“I had sympathy for Philip Byrnes in Wexford, I've said that a million times. But we have to have a debate around situations like this, where the jockey, the owner, and the horse take all the punishment when it's very, very hard to establish the real facts.

“Short of bringing a lie detector test into every stewards' inquiry, which would sort out an awful lot of this nonsense, I don't know what we're going to do. But would you not have some sympathy for the jockey, even if you don't believe what he said?

“Of course you would. He's a rider you'd have heard more of him a few years ago, and he's kind of making a comeback now.

“I think his record is fairly clean as well, that's why the stewards said they could have been harsher but he got 14 days in the end.

“It's one we're definitely not going to get to the bottom of, and it's just a tricky situation.”

Watch the Irish Angle in Full