Frankie Dettori after riding his 3,000th winner© Photo Healy Racing
Arguing against the economic bottom line is usually an uneconomic use of time and energy so Richard Hannon’s complaint about Ireland’s “farcical” early entry system is likely to wind up lodged in a ‘like it or lump it’ account. Whether it should be is a different matter. The English trainer’s comments about how it is unrealistic to know in April whether or not to enter for the Phoenix Stakes in August reflect the view of many others. But the bottom line is that the Irish system is a cash generator: so good luck changing it.
Compared to Britain and, in particular, France, some of the entry hoops that have to be jumped through here in order to keep a horse in a race do come significantly early. That brings in fees which allow Horse Racing Ireland to make prizemoney projections. The nature of the early entry system here is a regular crib amongst more than just overseas owners and trainers but the reality is it raises money.
That it favours the mammoth bloodstock operations too can hardly be shocking to anyone. Economic clout has a way of doing that. For a race like the Phoenix, Coolmore can afford to make block entries months in advance. Godolphin in contrast appear to lean towards seeing what they’ve got and then supplementing if they feel they have suitable material. Either way the prizemoney coffers get swollen so from an official point of view it’s hard to see any incentive to change.
It can be unwise to make sweeping conclusions from single races too. Caravaggio’s ultimate odds-on saunter in the Phoenix Stakes was something of a wash-out in terms of spectacle and competitiveness.
But based on his reputation beforehand it’s hard to imagine there were many tumbling over themselves to take him on even if they were entered. That he ultimately, according to Hannon, didn’t win that impressively has maybe contributed to a sense of frustration at a possible lost opportunity. But there’s no percentage in looking backwards and 2017 could be entirely different again.
Timing is always important and if the world wasn’t being consumed in the Rio Olympics right now it’s safe to assume Frankie Dettori’s feat in becoming just the sixth flat jockey to ride 3,000 winners in Britain would have attracted far greater coverage. After all Dettori is usually media catnip, a recognisable figure far beyond racing’s boundaries. He is also one of the finest riders the game has ever seen.
He isn’t everyone’s personal cup of tea but behind the flash lies any amount of talent and the substance to back it up when it really counts, the acid test of any top jockey.
Tony McCoy’s incredible tally of 4,357 winners is even more remarkable considering the demands of the National Hunt game. It is also reflective of a fundamentally different approach to the job, as he himself conceded - “I said to Frankie a few weeks ago at Epsom he’d have ridden 6,000 winners if he wasn’t just a weekend and big-race jockey!”
It has always been the big occasion rather than a remorseless totting up of winners that has fired the Italian and crucially it is the big occasion anywhere. If there’s one jockey you could drop into any racing environment anywhere in the world and expect them to thrive it is Dettori. Incredible natural talent has always been at the root of that. However at 45 no one can argue that he hasn’t stood the test of time.
Paul Carberry did the same until talent was trumped by the accumulated wear and tear of over two decades at the top of the most demanding game of all. Carberry also managed to produce a rare unanimity within racing, both for acclaim of his outstanding natural talent and a nagging ‘if only’ at what he might have achieved if that talent had been accompanied by a dedication similar to McCoy’s.
Now that professionalism is a credo that anyone with any ambition in the saddle has to be seen to embrace, some of Carberry’s more exuberant behaviour over the years seems even more cavalier, a throwback to less pressurised and demanding days when public scrutiny was less pervasive and perhaps less prurient.
But there can hardly be a jump jockey around in the last 20 years who hasn’t marvelled at the things he was able to do on a horse even when it might have appeared his mind was less than fully occupied with the job.
If there appears to be a lingering regret for some observers that Carberry didn’t fulfil his outrageous abilities to the max, then hopefully that regret isn’t shared by the man himself. Carberry is a rare individual but ever rarer is the individual who gets to have his cake and eat it.
A HRI review of the jumps pattern has resulted in an upgrading of a dozen handicaps and the downgrading of a dozen weight-for-age races. Of the latter, ten have been reduced from Grade 2 to Grade 3 with a couple more reduced to Listed from Grade 3.
No doubt it will strike some as running contrary to the idea of rewarding excellence but if that’s the theory then the practise on the ground over the last few years surely makes this shot at increasing field size and competition worthwhile. By their very nature handicaps can bring different issues but there’s no point pretending field sizes haven’t been a significant issue for some time.
And finally, many of us who suspect Ivan Grozny is the real deal in this Saturday’s Ebor could also take a significant interest in how Limato goes in the previous day’s Nunthorpe. It is set to be a first start over five furlongs for a horse who began the season finishing fourth in the Lockinge over a mile.
Maybe some will be willing to take him on because of the minimum distance factor but not this space. Famously some Derby winners are reputed to have the speed for a July Cup. Limato didn’t so much win the July Cup as dominate it throughout. York’s five is a flat five. It’s likely to feel like uphill stuff for Limato’s opposition.
