Chaotic scenes in the 3-y-o hurdle at Roscommon© Photo Healy Racing
The random horse selection process for the show jumping element of the Modern Pentathlon caused a storm last week when it robbed Ireland's Natalya Coyle of a chance to medal at the Olympics. You would have to feel for Natalya as this was her last realistic chance of an Olympic podium finish but at least with this lucky dip allocation system there’s no discernible physical risk attached to the horse you draw.
Seeing your name down to ride one in the first three-year-old hurdle of the season at Roscommon is a whole different matter. Not for the first time we saw carnage at the first obstacle in the juvenile hurdle at Roscommon last Tuesday. The life of a jump jockey is fraught with danger but these early season juvenile hurdles are akin to a game of Russian Roulette for the riders.
Most of the riders will be sitting on these three-year-olds for the very first time and have to take it on trust that the animals have been adequately schooled in advance their debuts over hurdles.
With almost half the field exiting at the first hurdle last week in Roscommon you would have to question the logic of big field juvenile hurdles filled with horses making their debuts over obstacles. Perhaps these early season events should be limited to small fields and run in several divisions such is the case with Barrier Trials.
At the very least the jumping of a practice hurdle should be mandatory in advance of these contests. Not only would the practice hurdle be of benefit to the horse and jockey but from a betting point of view it would be compulsive viewing.
Back to the Olympics and looking at the myriad of marginal sports that are now included it’s a wonder that horse racing has never been considered. It’s one of the only truly international sports that’s not in the games and from an Irish point of view you’d imagine we’d be guaranteed a hat-full of medals if it was an Olympic event.
With horse racing constantly trying to attract a new audience with pointless innovations such as last weekend’s Shergar Cup and the new Racing League it’s a surprise that the sport hasn’t made concerted efforts to be included in the Olympics.
Another surprising aspect of the Tokyo Olympics was the lack of bookmaker engagement. You can’t turn on a cookery programme on the telly these days without seeing gambling ads but for some reason the bookies seem to have largely given the Olympics a wide berth.
When you see how the corporate bookies have hijacked soccer to the point where it seems the only purpose of the game is gambling it’s baffling that they ignored the Olympics. You’d have thought that a 300% book on the Marathon would have been too tempting to resist.
Over the coming week or so we are due to hear the decision of the Appeal Committee into trainer Stephen Mahon’s four year ban. The Galway-based trainer was found guilty of the neglect of horses in his care at a referral hearing in early June and subsequently lodged an Appeal which was heard on Saturday 1st August. The Appeals Committee has three weeks to issue a written verdict.
The original Referral Hearing lasted two days and heard evidence from 15 different witnesses but one key witness did not attend. Veterinary Surgeon Paul Houlihan who treated and subsequently euthanized ‘Horse A’ aka Geffrey’s Girl took no part in the original hearing but the neglect case against Mahon was largely based on a report Houlihan made to Dr Lynn Hillyer, IHRB Chief Veterinary Officer.
The Appeal lodged on behalf of Mahon contained 15 different areas where his legal team believed the original Referral Committee erred. It will be interesting to hear if any of these assertions are upheld.
