David Mullins and Rule The World are all smiles after the Grand national© Photo Healy Racing
Lots of legal ‘brass’ are reportedly girding their loins for next week’s Referrals Committee appeal into the Noble Emperor affair. That is simultaneously both their clients’ entitlement and a weakness in racing’s integrity system. If High Court burdens of proof are required to nail down what are essentially judgement calls, it leaves ample room for sharp legal minds to manoeuvre in. It can also mean the spectre of the High Court itself in the background.
Because how do you prove intent in a ‘non-trier’ case? Unless someone puts their hands up and says so then it is nigh on impossible. Only for the English jockey Paul John doing just that recently, it’s highly unlikely the BHA would have been able to disqualify, subject to appeal, the trainer, Jim Best. But that’s an exception which proves the rule: Paul John squawked and in doing so proved a rare customer indeed.
Otherwise it’s basically opinion, and the instinct in such circumstances is usually to err on the side of caution. There are a number of possible outcomes to next week’s eagerly-anticipated appeals but those believing they will be dismissed must be in a tiny minority, given any reasonable examination of what has occurred in the past. It’s also why, in relation to integrity, and to paraphrase a certain Irish singer, the system really could do with being dreamed up all over again.
In fact it should be an urgent priority considering that some of the reaction to the Noble Emperor case shows how low expectations are. The details of Barry Geraghty’s ban in particular will be thrashed out next week but the reality as it stands is that the stewards on the day decided he breached the ‘non-trier’ rules and penalised him with a 30 day suspension. However listening to some quarters involves imagining this might be a case for the European Court of Civil Rights.
What do people think jockeys should receive for such a breach? There are plenty of jurisdictions where the penalty would be a lot more severe than 30 days. It’s possible to talk about precedence, and worse being seen every other day, and all the rest of it. And to an extent there is validity in some of it. But not to the extent argued by some.
In a much broader sense, though, all of this is just another symptom of a range of integrity issues in Irish racing which are serious enough to seemingly allow some within British racing to assume a laughably pious tone in relation to what happens here.
Perhaps the nadir of such hypocrisy came last year when British officials were facilitated in entering another jurisdiction to drug test horses just a couple of years after the pathetically transparent exercise in expediency that was the Godolphin steroids scandal. The fact that Ireland’s authorities acquiesced was as surely as grave a sign as any of the task involved in establishing credibility with the betting public.
But cross-channel tut-tutting about ‘non-triers’ here requires a lot of neck considering what’s happening in Britain too. This is hardly just an Irish phenomenon.
Considering it is the one time in the year when the general public en-masse tune into racing, the Aintree Grand National continues to be both a massive opportunity in terms of exposure and a potential headache in terms of animal welfare. But even though it is a matter of ‘when’ not ‘if’ there is an equine casualty in the big race, Saturday’s renewal was an indicator of how the balance in terms of challenge and safety is pretty much right.
The fact that all 39 horses returned unscathed is a huge relief all-round, especially since just 16 finished on ground that was heavy in parts. It is the fourth year in a row that horses and jockeys emerged from the National without serious injury although it has to be pointed out how there were four equine fatalities in the two races run over the National course in the previous two days.
However widespread fears on the back of the last significant fence modifications, and the rise in quality among the runners, that the National was on the verge of turning into just another long distance handicap can surely and finally be put to bed.
The 33-1 winner Rule The World continued a run of big-priced winners and with a 100-1 shot, Vics Canvas, in third there’s no doubt the lottery element, so vital to the National’s broad appeal, is intact. Rule The World’s victory was a particularly poignant one for Mouse Morris and there will be widespread happiness on behalf of a popular racing figure.
A colleague pointed out one interesting Liverpool postscript about the Aintree team’s response to horse fatalities following Friday’s Topham. They referenced a University of Liverpool study which claims the chances of a horse sustaining an injury at the races are far lower than when simply exercising in a field. A simple explanation for which might actually be that horses spend a lot longer in fields than they do in races.
And finally, it seems attitudes to Student race days are becoming quite strident. Usually, the reaction to thousands of young people puking and pissing in public, maybe even with an odd stagger of knicker thrown in, is a gauge to the age of those offended. So there appear to have been quite a lot of senior citizens at Leopardstown and Limerick last week too.
Calm down, dears: such behaviour is the privilege of being 20, as is the dismissal of anything you might think about it. If you don’t disgrace yourself at 20, there’s a fair chance you’ll wind up doing it at 50 which is just sad.
Ultimately there’s only one real question to ask — who’s paying for all the gargle?
