Yachvili winning at Balinrobe in 2010© Photo Healy Racing
Dimitri Yachvili’s famed rugby life has been notable for an obvious intelligence. The horse that carries the French international’s name has had a mostly mediocre career but is assured a footnote in racing history for the stupidity surrounding him. Without that stupidity it is doubtful the Yachvili case would have even seen the light of day, never mind become a landmark episode.
Certainly not in modern times have there been penalties as severe as the ten year disqualification handed to owner Robert Martin, the eight years given to his associate Brian Keown, and the four year ban disqualification handed out to Lucy Stanton. Jockey Eddie O’Connell has also been ‘warned off’ for four years.
Martin is appealing the penalty to the Turf Club. So is O’Connell who, along with Yachvili’s trainer James Lambe, who has been cleared of all involvement in controversial events surrounding the fateful race at Downpatrick in September of 2011, is appealing to the Supreme Court a High Court defeat of their argument against the Turf Club’s legislative ability to penalise them. So the saga is far from finished.
What we can say is that the verdicts are a result for the Turf Club and Betfair and show an impact can be made when the two bodies throw their weight into cooperating with each other. But even with the best will in the world, and giving credit where it is absolutely due, it’s hard to imagine this is the start of some brave new dawn in terms of cheats getting nabbed wholesale.
The judgement on this case is available on the Turf Club website and an examination reveals a painstaking joining of the dots in terms of phone calls, transcripts, recordings and betting patterns. Since intent is all but impossible to prove in such matters, there has to be a balance of probabilities element and the picture painted is a compelling one. It is also a picture of greed and spectacular ineptitude.
We’re not talking masterminds here: instead there is a lumpen deposit of ten grand into an account just hours before a wildly incompetent attempt to get on. Betfair recordings reveal Stanton to be someone almost as ignorant of betting procedure as she is of geography – “she knew someone who lived in Yachvili.” There’s also evidence that significant cracks appeared in the ranks of those accused which undoubtedly helped the Turf Club security team join the dots even more.
The suspicion has to be that the Turf Club was helped considerably by the ineptitude of those it was investigating. The other suspicion is that there remain plenty of operators out there capable of bending the rules a lot more effectively and discreetly than this bunch. Nailing them down is likely to require a lot more, maybe more than the integrity services currently have within their capabilities, both technically and legally.
But what isn’t unreasonable to expect is that whatever help that can be provided is provided in terms of resources and logistics. And in terms of lessons learned from the Yachvili case, a notable one appears to be the importance of phone records and timely official access to them. Luck was on the side of the authorities this time. Taking luck out of the equation as much as is possible surely has to be the aim.
Ideally the ‘C’ word we should be using at this time of year is classics, not corruption, especially with some seismic action coming up on both sides of the pond.
American racing will yearn for a rare blast of positive publicity in a dozen days time as California Chrome attempts to become the first since Affirmed thirty six years ago to land the Triple Crown. That the story will come gift-wrapped in a bundle of likable small-time connections and rags-to-riches back story will only add to the mix.
Any reprieve from the everyday reality of a fundamentally flawed medication regime will be temporary though and in concrete terms victory for ‘Chrome’ will be a sentimental but ultimately insubstantial diversion. Still, you’d want to be hard-hearted not to hope he does it. So why isn’t there a hard-hearted European spoilsport in the Belmont?
Go And Go remains the only European trained horse to win an American classic in the 1990 Belmont, a helluva lot more recent than Affirmed, and Dermot Weld’s horse sluiced up against a topper of an American dirt horse in Unbridled. Go And Go was Group 2 at best in Europe yet when presented with a mile and a half, and opposition that looked in need of oxygen up the straight, he looked like a champion.
Yes dirt is an unknown, but so is race-day medication. And what isn’t an unknown is that a mile and a half is mostly a curio trip for top American dirt horses, yet pedigrees abound with mile and a half performance in Europe.
Of course the top mile and a half prospects will concentrate on Epsom the same day but why aren’t the European behemoth organisations diverting horses just off the highest class and chancing their arm on the dirt where huge money and Grade 1 prestige is going available. There doesn’t appear a whole lot to lose and plenty to gain.
And talking of Epsom, it’s a good thing Australia is unaware of the expectation around him because it’s getting to the stage that anything but a Derby rout will be an anti-climax.
The depth of hype surrounding the colt got another layer when John Magnier said everyone in Ballydoyle will be surprised if Australia doesn’t win. Normally reticent, for the Coolmore boss to baldly come out and say that is noteworthy. Reputation-wise, Australia’s is such that it appears a waste of time for anyone else to turn up. But Epsom really will be put-up or shut-up.
The Curragh was dealt a poor hand for the Guineas in terms of weather. Nothing can be done about that. But in terms of controlling the controllable, here’s a tip: lose the Coldplay loop for welcoming the winners back. They deserve more. So does everyone else. Things were wet enough.
