Galway © Photo Healy Racing
The shouting at Galway came from the stands but the grumbling came from the stable-yard. And on the back of a new pre-race veterinary inspection policy it mightn’t be long before wrangling begins in the corridors of power. What might be worth keeping in mind though is how any such wrangling will appear to the great amorphous outside-world where animal welfare is a perpetually emotive subject.
Plenty were peeved-off during the festival where on a single day there were five horses declared “non-runner by order of the stewards” after a series of inspections by the racecourse vet. Basically these inspections consisted of horses getting trotted up and down and if it was decided they were lame they were taken out of the race.
All this is taking place on the back of a recent Clonmel fixture where there were five equine fatalities and much discussion on the possible impact of horses more used to racing on winter ground encountering faster conditions. There is a feeling that quick going can find out any lingering physical problems there might be in an animal.
At Galway though more than one trainer privately expressed the view that anyone expecting perfect balletic movement out of most horses pulled out of a box in the morning is destined for disappointment. The nature of any athlete in-training is to be ‘feely’ sometimes. Perfect health is mostly impossible most of the time. But that doesn’t mean that athlete isn’t perfectly capable of performing.
It was also pointed out how stricter guidelines might impact on what jockeys are prepared to report to stewards. Since jockeys are obliged to report some details of a horse’s performance they could be placed in an invidious position if doing so draws unwanted attention. And the potential dangers of not reporting are obvious to everyone.
Such small-picture concerns are valid in their own way but it is important to keep in mind the big picture which is that racing not only must have animal welfare as a priority, but has to be seen to make it a priority. In headline terms that Clonmel fixture illustrated again how racing doesn’t exist in a vacuum. But it’s more than just a cosmetic exercise in PR.
There is a fundamental duty-of-care on the authorities to make sure every possible step in terms of animal welfare is taken. And there is point crying after-the-event about horses sent out on the sort of quick National Hunt ground that pertained for the start of the festival if they’re not in acceptable shape to cope with it. Rightly or wrongly, such tears are open to being dismissed as crocodile.
A similarly sceptical attitude is likely to greet another current trainer bugbear which is the increased rate of stable inspections by Turf Club officials. No doubt such visits are an irritating pain for the vast majority but in big-picture terms it is short-sighted to not see how it is to the overall benefit of the sport if officialdom is seen to go the extra yard. It’s a boring reality in the policing of doping in any sport, but a reality none the less, that even if there’s nothing to see, those in charge still have to be seen to be looking.
It’s not just in the stable-yard though where things are changing. Timiyan’s win at Galway came after the handicapper’s wish to have another look at his official rating of 77 was ultimately denied when the horse’s connections pointed out they were unaware of any brave new handicapping world where marks can be reassessed much more quickly and the process made much more adaptable.
The technological capability at the Turf Club is now becoming available to make rapid reassessments if a horse is entered for a race run at a distance considerably different to those it was originally handicapped at. The Timiyan team reasonably pointed out that that’s all very well, but no one knew. It’s known now though, and the system could be fully in place by the start of 2015.
Apparently it was Time Of My Life’s 2012 Wexford win on his first handicap start that first got the wheels revolving on this one. Three undistinguished juvenile starts, the last of them at five furlongs, meant the son of Galileo started in his first handicap on a mark of just 47. Upped to a mile and a half for his first three year old start, he promptly started an evens favourite and won by fifteen lengths.
As a means of getting favourably handicapped, this is hardly original or complex and it could be argued that anything that helps the handicapper to create a playing field that is as theoretically level as possible should be in place sooner rather than later. What’s going to be fun is coming up with a workable definition of what constitutes ‘considerably different.’
And finally, it was instructive to see how much worse Antique Platinum’s Galway victory looked side-on compared to the head-on. Side-on, it appeared bad enough to even briefly consider the remote possibility of the winner getting thrown out. The head-on though immediately showed how Antique Platinum would keep the race, something that nevertheless didn’t prevent a twenty minute delay to the ‘winner-alright’ while the lengthy enquiry proceeded.
Perhaps the most instructive lesson though was how Pat Smullen escaped any censure: when the season’s leading jockey eventually decides to pack in riding he might consider doing a law degree because arguing his way out of that was something any barrister would be proud of!
