Dylan O Connor celebrates as he wins a race on Day 3 at Dingle© Photo Healy Racing
Like most people I sat down each evening over the last few weeks to watch the Olympics. It was wonderful entertainment and the Irish successes were an unexpected bonus.
There is something special about watching competitors give it their all in any sporting arena. But even more so at the Olympics where in the majority of cases the years of hard work and dedication are simply to achieve a personal best without any hope of winning a medal. For many just qualifying out of their heat is their equivalent of a gold medal.
Despite the Corinthian spirit of most participants, every now and then while watching the different events some obscure competitor would pop up and win Gold and my knee-jerk reaction was invariably that they must have been on drugs. After decades of doping scandals in a myriad of sports we are now conditioned to jump to that conclusion whenever the established order is overthrown.
The commentators, with their expertise in the particular disciplines, often don’t help matters with their “I can’t believe what I’ve just seen” comments.
In horse racing we see many such “I can’t believe what I’ve just seen” moments, but despite the chequered history of drug abuse within this sport too, we instinctively know that the number one explanation for dramatic improvement is that the horse wasn’t trying before today and it is not necessarily anything to do with doping.
In the majority of horse races, which are handicaps, there is an advantage gained by masking the true ability of a horse. The more you conceal the ability of the horse, the greater the chance that the horse will win when wanted. Almost everyone does this to some extent, whether that is a couple of “quiet runs” at the start of a career to get a workable handicap rating, or the more systematic stopping methods employed by the gambling yards where it has been elevated to an artform.
In Olympic sports there is zero advantage in disguising your true ability. In fact the opposite is true, you need to reach a certain standard to qualify in the first place, the better you do in the heats, the better lane you will get in the final and so on.
If they were ever to introduce a few handicap events into the Olympic programme you’d expect the Irish competitors to prosper with our rich tradition of concealment. Though Team GB probably wouldn’t be too far behind us in that particular medals table.
Changing the subject, the racing authorities must wonder what they have to do to keep banned trainers out of the limelight. Tony Martin, despite having his licence suspended for the entire duration of this season’s Racing League, still appears on the roster of trainers representing Team Ireland on the event’s official website. And then there is Ronan McNally.
McNally managed to overshadow the entire Galway Races and he wasn’t even there.
Last weekend he was firmly front and centre at the pony racing in Dingle where his colours were carried to victory in the main event, The Dingle Derby, on Sunday by Verstappen, ridden by his son Kian “Tubs” McNally.
Regardless of your views of McNally, there can be no denying that he is box office. With the sport struggling to stay relevant and documentaries such as ITV’s Full Gallop failing to hit the mark to any significant degree, it may be time for McNally The Movie to thrust horse racing into the spotlight.
