A 3-fingered salute from Russell and Byrnes© Photo Healy Racing
The story about that Charles Byrnes treble at Roscommon has contained plenty to get stuck into for the last week even including it seems an interesting insight into racing linguistics. There were those relishing a good old-fashioned betting ‘coup’ while others less impressed employed words like ‘plot’ instead. It all depends on which angle you’re coming from and as with most gambling stories the real angle is whether or not you’ve been in on it.
Even the pious can find it hard not to relish a little roguery if they’re in the know. And they’re often the most vocal about blind stewards and shameful shystering if they’re not. As the show tune insists, there’s no interest like self-interest, like no interest we know.
So it’s obviously in Byrnes’ own self-interest then to label the story as good for racing, just as it is in the interests of some bookmaker chains to mournfully declare the whole thing to be bad for racing’s image. Gleeful tabloid front pages about ‘byrned’ bookies — and pictures of Byrnes and Davy Russell with big grins - are either a publicity coup or a besmirching of racing integrity depending on the angle you come from.
Either way the story has probably only served to cement even further already well planted prejudices about the sport in general.
For those who love a coup - the kind of people who’ve got Barney Curley posters on the wall - the sound of bookies bleating is mother’s milk, especially considering some of the more dubious practises of those same chains.
Neither though do you have to be in love with any gambling corporation to acknowledge how perception is vital when it comes to both the racing and betting industries and talk of plots do nothing to persuade the dubious that they’re wrong about suspecting the whole thing to be a giant carve up.
Into this mix of agendas then come the Turf Club and their investigation, which, whatever they do, will be perceived according to differing prejudices too, although the final outcome could be, yet again, that racing’s integrity body provides rare unanimity in getting a kicking from all sides.
The Turf Club can’t win on this, whatever it does, because whatever it does is destined to be dismissed as an exercise in optics.
Ultimately the reality is that you don’t have to be any kind of form guru to provide valid explanations for why any of the three Byrnes runners were capable of winning those races. That’s reflected in the racecourse stewards decisions to note two explanations and leave another entirely alone. These were bad horses in bad races. But bad will beat worse.
That they occurred on the same day and were clearly fancied and backed made the story sexy. But on their own merits, each of the wins was explainable through recourse to that hopelessly old-fashioned staple, the formbook. And that’s what any investigation has to go on, and be seen to go on, regardless of headlines, history or any other less than objective assessment.
Perhaps the most objective assessment of all though must be that the €5 million figure splashed all over the front pages in relation to bookmaker losses should be taken not so much with a spoon of salt as a lorry load.
The idea of trying to get even fifty quid on a three horse accumulator at fancy double-digit odds will strike most punters as absurd. This story was closer to generating €5 million worth of publicity than €5 million of loss.
The impressive rise of Tote betting has been a feature of the last couple of years but the extent to which it is a result of overseas betting on racing here can be gauged by the recent reaction to UK customers not betting into the placepot pool here.
Due to technical issues the UK Tote is offering their own placepot and quadpot on Irish racing for what the Tote here expect to be for a short period of time before co-mingling begins again.
The lack of cross-channel money though has seen a noticeable slide in the size of the placepot pool here, reaching just €2,640 at that Roscommon meeting where the Byrnes hat-trick took place. A placepot pool at Roscommon in early July reached €32,965. It is figures like these that outline the Tote’s international element which can surely only grow further into the future.
Caravaggio is as low as 11-4 favourite for next year’s 2,000 Guineas after doing no more than any 1-8 favourite should be expected to do when comfortably winning the Phoenix Stakes at the Curragh. He beat a stable companion with the Railway Stakes winner Medicine Jack finishing third after appearing not to run up to par. The response was a general cut in prices for the Guineas, the Dewhurst, the Middle Park and probably anything else if you ask nicely.
This is clearly a hell of a two year old, a natural talent and physically precocious with it. Those of us sufficiently old enough might even draw parallels with Fasliyev, the second of Aidan O’Brien’s remarkable tally of 15 Phoenix Stakes winners. And to anyone crazy enough to consider ante-post classic quotes almost nine months in advance warning parallels can also be drawn in terms of the hype now surrounding Caravaggio.
O’Brien has described Caravaggio as the fastest he’s ever had. Air Force Blue wound up 2016 as the best two year old he’s ever had. George Washington did win a Guineas. One Cool Cat didn’t. There are few things in racing more exciting than the emergence of an outstanding young talent. It’s that excitement though that can make the more excitable forget how so many ultimately fail to live up to their reputation.
And finally, the Shergar Cup is an easy target, for a lot of reasons but primarily because the team tactics on which it’s based are both bogus and in the normal course of events against the rules. No doubt it’s fun for all involved but it’s really just a gimmick.
If there was more to it than that a campaign to get racing into the Olympics might have begun by now. After all they’ve left everything else in. I think it’s reasonable to assume an Irish team might ‘medal’ too. But who’d captain?
