Shoshone Warrior won unchallenged at Leopardstown© Photo Healy Racing
On Friday 20th March 2020 trainer Denis Hogan ran two horses in a Claimer at Dundalk. The bookmakers priced up the 92-rated Yuften as their 1/2 favourite with Hogan’s other runner Tony The Gent initially priced at 5/2.
By the time the race went off at 2.30pm that afternoon the betting market had been flipped on its head. Strong support for Tony The Gent sent the 75-rated performer off as the odds-on favourite with Yuften a friendless 6/4 shot.
In the race itself Tony The Gent broke smartly, was always close to the pace, led early in the straight and ran out an easy winner. Yuften, on the other hand, missed the break, was held up towards the rear, didn’t get a clear run and eventually ran on to finish second to his stablemate.
The Dundalk stewards enquired into the running and riding of Yuften and having taken into account the betting trends which they felt “required further investigation” they referred the matter on to their then CEO Denis Egan. Two years, three months and twenty days later that investigation is still going on.
Fast forward to Leopardstown on Thursday 7th July 2022 when trainer Joseph O’Brien saddled two runners in a Qualified Riders race. The bookmakers initially priced the 106-rated Okita Soushi as their 1/2 favourite with O’Brien’s other runner Shoshone Warrior priced at 10/1.
By the time the race went off at 8.30pm the betting market had a very different appearance with strong support for Shoshone Warrior sending the 94-rated performer off at odds of 7/2 while the friendless Okita Soushi had drifted to an SP of 4/5
In the race itself Shoshone Warrior was soon driven into a clear lead and was so far in front of his rivals in the home straight that he was eased down in the closing stages to win unchallenged by ten lengths. Okita Soushi, on the other hand, was held up towards the rear of the field, made some progress to go a moderate 2nd in the straight but was never in a position to threaten his stablemate.
The Leopardstown stewards ... well they did nothing. They never asked a question of the trainer or rider of the odds-on favourite Okita Soushi, ignored the betting trends and went home.
I’m not suggesting there was anything untoward with the Leopardstown race, but you can see the similarities with the Dundalk contest which has resulted in one of the longest running investigations in the history of the sport. So where is the consistency?
Consistency of stewarding should be a given. We can argue all day long about the nuances of the interference rules or whether whip offences are treated too leniently, but once everyone is dealt with in the same way we can accept these decisions and move on.
Perhaps the Leopardstown stewards were conscious that the Dundalk Claimer investigation has turned into a never ending saga for the IHRB and didn’t want to burden them with a repeat. Or perhaps it was simply that it was the last race of the evening and only involved amateur riders so it was given a free pass.
Whatever the logic was behind the Leopardstown stewards’ inaction there is a wider issue here regarding beaten favourites. The IHRB should be seen to be more proactive when it comes to favourites that run below expectation.
Since Okita Soushi was beaten at Leopardstown on Thursday night there have been a further 19 favourites that finished unplaced in their respective races over the last 3 days. It is simply not good enough that the connections of these horses are not all asked for an explanation as to why their horses ran poorly. The betting public deserve that at the very least.
The entire industry is dependent on gambling revenue and, as long as that remains the financial model, the sport must protect its betting integrity.
JP McManus, who incidentally owned three of those unplaced favourites, must be extremely proud of what he has achieved with his Pro-Am golf tournament at Adare Manor. It is incredible to see how one man’s vision has grown into a global event attracting the world’s best players and at the same time raising millions for charity.
My late father was a founding member of the Links Golf Society which also raised money for charity through golfing events and I’m sure if he was with us today he would be in awe of what JP has managed to achieve.
For all that JP McManus and his horses have accomplished in horse racing you get the feeling that his lasting legacy will end up being this golf tournament.
