A vibrant Gowran Park on Thyestes Day© Photo Healy Racing
It was great to see a packed Gowran Park last week for Thyestes Day. The midweek fixture has traditionally been popular with National Hunt fans who travel in big numbers from all over the south east and with covid restrictions lifted only days before this year’s event it was most reassuring to see crowds flock back to racing.
Thyestes Chase Day is one of those special days in the rural calendar when the cows milk themselves and is always an entertaining day out with a real buzz about the place. This year’s renewal of the big race was particularly exciting for those in attendance with plenty still in contention turning for home and less than a length separating the first two at the finish.
Considering the race has a total prize pool of just €100,000 - there are five handicaps worth the same or more at next weekend's Dublin Racing Festival - it would be worth considering giving some of the other smaller tracks in the country a similar sum to create their own feature event. Tracks like Wexford, Sligo, Roscommon and Ballinrobe would be able to drum up great local support if they had a significant feature race to build a day around.
Perhaps another way of looking at this would be to move one or more of the existing feature races in the calendar to different racecourses each year. A race like the Irish Cesarewitch, run over two miles in mid-October, does little or nothing for the Curragh’s bottom line but it would be a big deal if it was run at one of the lesser tracks. Most tracks should have suitable ground that time of year and could cater for a reasonable number of horses in a two mile race.
The geographic spread of racecourses throughout the country is an asset that is often overlooked. Being able to bring high-quality action to all corners of the island is something that should be explored rather than concentrating all the eggs in the same few baskets all the time.
Last week the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board released data relating to their equine anti-doping efforts in the second half of 2021. As this was the period when they first got to use their new powers as Authorized Officers and could enter unlicensed premises unannounced it was anticipated that we might see something unusual in this period’s data. Unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately), that doesn’t appear to be the case. In the last six months of 2021 the IHRB conducted 123 visits to premises for out-of-competition inspections and found just one adverse analytical finding (a positive sample). The data set is relatively small so we can hardly draw any firm conclusions but it initially appears that these results are more or less in line with raceday testing which last year produced one positive sample for every 150 tests taken.
All told there were 21 adverse analytical findings in 2021 but you wouldn’t want to hold your breath waiting for those ongoing cases to be concluded. Last week the IHRB also released results of some disciplinary hearings into minor offences discovered during stable inspections at trainers yards. One case related to an inspection that took place on 28th August 2019 while another was from 29th November 2018. In the latter case it took the IHRB over three years to fine a trainer €250 for not having his medicines register up to date. Even taking into account delays due to Covid restrictions this is bordering on the ridiculous.
The IHRB say that their equine anti-doping strategy is “guided by the main principle of taking the right sample from the right horse at the right time” but it should also include some reasonable timeframe to conclude these investigations rather than allowing them to sit within their system for years on end.
Even away from the complexities of doping inquiries it’s coming up to the second anniversary of the Yuften-Tony The Gent Claiming race at Dundalk with no imminent sign of a conclusion to that betting related investigation. Yuften himself has had four different trainers since that day while his conqueror in that controversial race, Tony The Gent, has raced a further 29 times without success.
Finally, it was remarkable to see JP McManus pass the 4,000 winner milestone as an owner in recent days. The mind boggles trying to think how much that achievement has cost. He has on average 1,500 runners per year across Ireland and the UK and this National Hunt season alone has horses stabled with 67 different trainers and has employed over 80 different jockeys to ride them in races.
I can somewhat understand his purchase of horses like Douvan’s full brother, Jonbon, for £570,000. Who wouldn’t want to own the potentially best horses if you could afford them, but why persist with the legions of moderate animals at the same time?
