Jessica and Katie Harrington after the Victory of Modem at Galway on Monday© Photo Healy Racing
Two years after the mechanics of Carlingford Lough getting into the Galway Plate memorably shone a spotlight on the reserve system, it's interesting to note how it flickered again last week on the back of Modem not getting into the Galway Hurdle. Modem's trainer Jessica Harrington had two other declared runners and both of them ran. Since there was no non-runner, Modem, the first reserve, didn't run. One racing worthy said the episode restored his faith in humanity. As for his faith in the system he wasn't so sure.
By their nature, systems need to be clear-cut. The reserve system isn't. It's nuanced to the reality that horses are unpredictable. That works great from the point of view of owners and trainers. From a strictly racing perspective the idea that the final complexion of a race can change up three quarters of an hour before a meeting begins makes perfect sense. From a betting point of view however it's a nightmare. Since we're constantly assured selling Irish racing as a betting product to the world is the financial future, is the reserve system a self-inflicted injury waiting to happen?
The Galway Hurdle is Ireland's most valuable ever National Hunt race. It's also the centrepiece of Ireland's most famous and unique festival. Selling it to the betting world is a no-brainer. It's got money, prestige, glamour and excitement with any number of selling points to the wider public. After his Monday night victory, the story of how Modem might bring off a Galway double not seen in quarter of a century would have been one of the more intriguing elements - had he got a place in the final line-up.
Instead the storyline got bogged down in the reserve system. Modem was not a runner, but not a non-runner either. Try flogging that to the uninitiated, or a digital betting world used to working on 48 hour declarations where 'ghost' runners aren't an issue and nods and winks are hard to decipher. There was a widespread presumption on the lead in to the big race that Modem would wind up running. Rightly or wrongly, the presumption was something would step on a stone or develop a cough. That's the reality of the system in place, and many punters would have calculated accordingly.
So there was near incredulity in places when the race proceeded with its actual 20 declared runners. The system worked. Everyone played ball. But the inherent weakness in it was illustrated in widespread bemusement that it had worked at all. Because the shape of the most valuable handicaps run in this country are often fundamentally altered so close to the race itself, everyone ends up tip-toeing around a fudge-producing reserve system which from a betting point of view is a systemic nightmare.
The British alternative, with reserves getting in only on the morning after 48 hour declarations, has been widely condemned and Ireland's policy compared favourably to it. And from a professionals point of view it does work. But there's something fundamentally wrong, and something fundamentally off-putting to those not intimately familiar with the system, where a punter, who might even want to bet ante-post, can't be sure of the final make up of an internationally significant race until a few hours before its run.
If the future really is about worldwide digital betting, and pool betting, then racing here surely has to get a system in place that's much more digestible and user-friendly to the market out there. It has to be black and white. Systems don't work on grey. Maybe it's time to remove this grey area and scrap the reserve system completely.
Mind you, it's often a case of what you're used to, and when it comes to rough riding we've clearly got used to quite a lot. Sacrificial won a flat handicap on Plate day that was a notably incident-filled event and the outcome in the steward's room included Billy Lee's two day penalty for careless riding on the runner up Lily's Rainbow.
From the side-on view, Lee went significantly right in the closing stages, not helping, among others, Wayne Lordan's mount, Current State. On the head-on it looked even more hairy, to an extent that might make one wonder what a jockey has to do to get more than a relative two-day slap on the wrist.
Racing politics are invariably a bore but there's surely potential for good old-fashioned spark-flying between HRI and the racecourses if whispers about the ruling body requiring tracks to pony up E3,500 per meeting towards sponsorship - or have it deducted from their media rights money - are correct. The situation is only complicated by HRI's own racecourse interests. Who does the ruling body pay for instance - themselves?
Finally, talking of black and white systems, how convoluted is the one which decided Dermot Weld was again winner of the leading trainer award at the Galway festival even though his tally of five winners was three shy of Willie Mullins, and one behind Tony Martin.
Weld secured the prize for a 29th time courtesy of a system which gave five points per winner, three per runner up and one for a third. It's the system that has always applied at the festival but the scale of Weld's dominance was such it never became an issue before.
Weld's warnings about his 2015 Ballybrit team appeared to coincide with a dramatic improvement in Willie Mullins's fortunes while Martin's tally was stunning considering he got to halfway in the festival without any winner at all.
The points system works on F1 Grand Prix lines but it fundamentally skews things since surely the leading trainer should be the one with most winners. And if there's a tie, then the fortunes of their placed horses can be taken into account. Everyone else seems to work on that basis: why not Galway?
