Vina Ardanza (left) was knocked off course by Saldier at the last fence in Killarney© Photo Healy Racing
Last week the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) overturned two controversial decisions made by Raceday stewards two weeks earlier.
The first case involved Rachael Blackmore’s ride at Kilbeggan on 12 May where she appeared to make an error of judgement aboard Lady Rita in a three mile handicap hurdle and eased her mount passing the winning post with a circuit still to race.
In the original enquiry at Kilbeggan the Raceday stewards “were not entirely convinced with her explanation offered” but ultimately took no further action against the rider.
At the Referral hearing it was determined that “the Raceday Stewards erred in their decision on the day in not finding a breach and (the Referral Committee) found Ms. Blackmore in breach of Rule 212A(iv)” and the rider was given a five day suspension.
The second case heard last week was an Appeal by the owners of Vina Ardanza, who was beaten a nose in controversial circumstances at Killarney on 14 May. The Raceday stewards at Killarney had held an inquiry into interference at the last fence in the race where the winner Saldier had jumped right and collided with Vina Ardanza.
At Killarney the Raceday Stewards “were of the opinion that while Saldier had caused interference to Vina Ardanza, on the balance of probabilities he had not improved his finishing position as a result of this interference, so they made no alteration to the Judge’s placings, and therefore took no further action.” The Appeals Panel took the contrary view and reversed the result, awarding the race to Vina Ardanza.
In both of the above cases the Raceday stewards made incorrect decisions on the day. The overwhelming majority of racing fans knew they had and now the IHRB has concurred with that view.
These mistakes by the Raceday stewards chip away at the very bedrock of the sport. It is essential for any sport to function correctly that the competitors have confidence in the decisions of the regulators, but it’s even more important for horse racing where betting is such a key driver of the sport’s finances. Punters who backed Vina Ardanza at Killarney lost their money and they shouldn’t have. Changing the result on Appeal does nothing for them.
What is most disappointing with the IHRB verdicts in both of these cases is that no action was taken against either set of Raceday stewards. At the very least you would expect these two sets of amateur stewards would be given some additional training before being let loose again.
For an industry reckoned to be worth some €2.46 billion annually to the Irish economy, according to the latest Deloitte report, it must be about time that the introduction of professional stewards was considered.
The IHRB mission statement: “Ensuring the reputation of Irish Horse Racing and confidence in the sport is protected by robust and transparent regulatory practices, implemented with integrity, by a professional and progressive team.”
The continued use of amateur stewards making errors doesn’t quite align with their mission statement.
Last week the British Horseracing Authority (BHA) announced its approval for “innovative and wide-ranging changes to the 2024 fixture list.” These changes include holding evening fixtures on Sundays for the first time and having a “protected window” between 2pm and 4pm on most Saturday afternoons when a maximum of three fixtures will take place during this “peak customer engagement period.” Other Saturday fixtures will take place either earlier or later in the day to facilitate this change.
It is ironic that one of Britain’s biggest races of the year, the Epsom Derby, will fall outside this peak period when it takes place at 1.30pm next Saturday to avoid a clash with the FA Cup Final.
These changes we are told are “the first phase in the sport’s strategy to grow its fanbase, maximise engagement and generate increased revenues, which in turn will see increased prize money levels.”
You will note that there is no direct mention of gambling in this strategy, yet the entire strategy is based on increasing the amounts of money bet on horse racing.
Spreading the races out over longer periods on both Saturdays and Sundays will not “grow the fanbase.” All it will do is keep already engaged punters betting for longer periods of time.
This is effectively a mechanism to allow bookmakers to shake down their existing punters for even more. A packed Saturday afternoon schedule with races overlapping means that even the most addicted of punters can’t keep up and miss out on many opportunities to lose their money. The new strategy will solve that problem.
Irish and British racing are effectively the one product when it comes to bookmakers so you would imagine that the Irish fixture list will have to be altered to accommodate these changes in Britain.
It will be interesting to see how many Irish fixtures make it into the “peak customer engagement period” on Saturday afternoons. Any Irish meetings that cannot be facilitated between 2pm and 4pm on a Saturday will presumably have to start and finish before 2pm or begin some time after 4pm.
There will be no blog for the next two weeks as I’m going away on holidays. My next blog will be on Monday 19 June.
