Frankie Dettori with his final tally of 81 Royal Ascot winners© Photo Healy Racing
Royal Ascot turned into some bookies’ benefit. Just 8 favourites managed to win out of the 35 races and the average SP of the winners across the week was a staggering 17/1. Over half the winners returned at double figure odds and of course we saw a three figure winner courtesy of Adrian Murray with 150/1 scorer Valiant Force in the Norfolk Stakes on Thursday.
There was a record haul of 12 Irish-trained winners - 4 Aidan O’Brien, 2 Joseph O’Brien, and 1 each for Donnacha O’Brien, Dermot Weld, Willie Mullins, Jessica Harrington, Gavin Cromwell and Adrian Murray - but the International brigade only managed 1 winner between them while leading owners Godolphin drew a blank with zero winners from 27 runners.
The Irish topped the breeding stats with 18 Irish-bred winners compared to 12 GB, 3 USA and 2 FR. Galileo, Frankel and Siyouni sired 3 winners each and in total the 35 winners over the five days had 27 different sires.
Frankie Dettori, on his farewell tour, rode at his final Royal Ascot and brought his career total at the meeting to 81 victories with 4 more wins this time. Dettori bows out in second place in the all time list of Royal Ascot winning jockeys, 2 wins ahead of Ryan Moore (79), but a long way adrift of Lester Piggott (116).
Ryan Moore was leading jockey at Royal Ascot for the 10th time in 14 years with 6 winners. He had a further 8 second places across the week.
Last week the Irish Horseracing Regulatory Board (IHRB) released the verdict in the Ronan McNally’s Appeal hearing. In short, McNally is still disqualified for 12 years, but the last 4 years of the sentence are suspended. Rule changes are coming soon with regard to disqualified persons which will mean he can attend race meetings and get to see his son ‘Tubs’ ride on the track in the years to comes.
What was most apparent from this written verdict is how lawyered up any licenced individual needs to be that falls foul of the IHRB. During McNally's Appeal Hearing a number of old Supreme Court judgements were cited to back up arguments regarding which evidence was admissible, including a case from 2013: Lough Swilly Shellfish Growers Cooperative and Atlanticfish Limited versus Bradley.
Ultimately it was deemed that virtually none of the ‘new issues’ were admissible at the Appeal. According to the Appeal Panel: “It is very regrettable that so much of this appeal was taken up seeking to raise new issues which could have been raised at the hearing before the Committee but were not. We hope that such a course will not be repeated in future appeals. Hearings before the Committee are not in the nature of dress rehearsals or dry runs. It is not appropriate that issues which could be raised before the Committee are not but are held in reserve for an appeal in the event of tactics engaged in at first instance not proving fruitful. That is not acceptable and will not be viewed sympathetically.”
Without legal representation an ordinary mortal working in the industry has absolutely no chance in this environment. We saw this recently in a related Appeal hearing where trainer David Dunne got nowhere trying to argue against the suspension of his licence.
Another trainer set to try his hand at appealing a suspension is Denis Hogan. The trainer is to have his licence suspended for three months following a positive sample taken from a winner he trained at Galway last October.
In Hogan’s case the prohibited substances detected in Ballyadam Destiny were “anti-inflammatory medicines commonly used in veterinary practice” and the issue involved the trainer not adhering to the withdrawal period advised by his veterinary surgeon. The vet said to allow 40 days, but Hogan ran the horse after 31 days.
As this was Hogan’s fourth similar infringement of the rules he was hit with a €5,000 fine and a three month suspension of his licence.
Point-to-point handler Ciarán Fennessy was another in hot water last week over a positive sample for a prohibited substance. In his case he got away with a fine rather than having his Handler’s Permit withdrawn as this was his first such offence.
In Fennessy’s case a horse he trained, Twoconduit, to win a point-to-point in December was found to have “six times the screening limit in plasma” for Lidocaine in its system when samples were tested.
Fennessy “stated that he believed the adverse analytical finding arose due to his
use of the Ekyflogyl (another drug found at his premises), which contains lidocaine, on two other horses using a cloth which he claimed to have then inadvertently used on Twoconduit on the day of the Point to Point to clear off mud rash.”
We are constantly being told by advocates of the sport that these training establishments that house racehorses are akin to 5-star hotels. Well the more I hear about the amount of veterinary intervention with medicines, and the lotions and potions used on a daily basis by trainers I think they might be more accurately described as nursing homes.
My own (limited) experience with vets when it comes to our ageing family labrador is a policy of inject first, ask questions later. At 14 years of age our dog is sadly on her last legs, but our vet seems to have an inexhaustible array of options as long as we are willing to keep paying.
