Clonmel© Photo Healy Racing
Fast-ground loving jump horses already looked to have their days numbered but after the Clonmel carnage that saw five horses killed at one meeting it could be sooner-rather-than-later about those opportunities disappearing completely. Dismissing such incidents in ‘one-of-those-things’ terms isn’t on. If it is a statistical fact that faster ground leads to more fatalities then the industry has to be seen to alter those statistics and the easiest way is to ensure the going never even gets to ‘good.’
If that sounds extreme, then so it seems were the circumstances that occurred at Clonmel when good ground on the morning of the race turned good to firm very quickly indeed through the evening. But extreme as it might have been, it happened. And the lessons from that have to be learned. Otherwise those in charge are leaving themselves open, and those in charge don’t get to be in charge by allowing that to happen.
It is now established that jump racing’s showpiece events are not allowed take place on quick ground. Punchestown insisted on going on the yielding side of good a couple of months ago because of the danger to horses and riders of letting it go faster. And there’s no doubt the desire to avoid unwelcome headlines when the eyes of the sporting nation are on you is also a factor when the top tracks hosts top festivals.
Logistically some lesser tracks are not in the same position as their more high-profile brethren. That so many courses are used for both flat and hurdles is an obvious complicating factor. But if maintaining ground on the easy side of good is good enough for the big occasions, then not adopting a similar policy for the everyday stuff leaves racing wide open to the accusation that the only real difference is monetary and a lack of motivation once the spotlight isn’t on.
Irish racing’s default setting in comparative terms is always Britain. But in France jump racing takes place on soft ground. Even Auteuil in midsummer, when temperatures in Paris can reach a lot higher than they do here, horses run on soft ground. By definition that doesn’t suit some horses but it is safer for the vast majority of horses. And even the hard-men must acknowledge how racing doesn’t exist in a bubble divorced from outside perceptions, not matter how much they might wish it were so. If that means tracks err on the side of caution when it comes to watering then so be it: if the yielding side of good is suitable for Punchestown, then why not Clonmel and every other course? Perception matters, and what happened at Clonmel doesn’t look good at all.
There is undoubtedly any amount of nuance in what did happen. One of the five horses was killed in a fall that could have happened anywhere. But four pulled up fatally injured. Maybe the breed is more fragile with more and more flat bred horses transferred to jumping. But that’s not going to stop anytime soon.
Plenty in Irish racing take pride in not taking as supposedly an extremist tack when it comes to animal welfare as they do across the Irish Sea. But the issue of summer jumping especially, and the ground conditions it takes place on, is now front and centre with the Turf Club holding an investigation into what happened at Clonmel. Maybe this time the comparative reference point shouldn’t be our nearest neighbours but the French instead.
Perception matters hugely but it isn’t fact, something we got reminded of with Cape Of Approval’s run in a Listed sprint at Cork where it looked like jockey Billy Lee didn’t try very hard, if at all, on the Tommy Stack trained gelding. On the face of it, it looked dreadful, especially on the head-on, and plenty vented plenty spleen across all platforms about blind stewards and bent jockeys. Lee however reported Cape Of Approval lost his action in the closing stages and he quickly dismounted the horse after the line with one man on the ground observing that one of the horse’s joints was “up like a balloon.” A Turf Club vet confirmed Cape Of Approval was lame. That was fact, and a sign that it’s often far from straight-forward.
The focus this week is undoubtedly on Royal Ascot which for many purists is the high-water mark of the racing year. And there will be nothing more purist than the appearance of Treve in Wednesday’s Prince Of Wales Stakes. Beaten for the first and only time to date in the Ganay, by ground conditions as much as Cirrues Des Aigles, the French superstar could win this in a manner reminiscent of Montjeu in the King George such is her apparent superiority to the likely opposition.
Quality oozes from every one of the five days but it will be fascinating to see Slade Power line up in Saturday’s Diamond Jubilee Stakes. Eddie Lynam has always said the horse needed to mature but if Slade Power didn’t look the real-deal in last month’s Greenlands at the Curragh then time really does need to start hurrying up.
Finally if Missunited is 50-1 for the Gold Cup then there will be plenty worse long-shots during the week. Don’t forget this mare hardly had a perfect route through last year’s French Leger. If memory serves she was quite free. Yet she still got placed, proving yet again the expertise of her trainer Mick Winters.
There’s likely to be quite a lot of ‘David and Goliath’ stuff about Missunited, and chortling that veers dangerously close to condescension at the prospect of Winters meeting the Queen if she wins. Maybe the trainer will play up to it a bit too. But so what if he’s got a strong Cork accent and isn’t a natural fit for a morning suit? Winters has proved again and again he’s a talented and shrewd trainer, and a lot more than some ‘colourful’ cartoon figure. Actually Estimate’s owner might get that better than most.
