Barry Geraghty and Noble Emperor at Limerick on Sunday© Photo Healy Racing
It’s an old racing cliché that they — and by ‘they,’ read stewards — only go after the little guy. But no one can accuse Limerick’s officials of having one rule book for minnows and another for big fish. Suspending Barry Geraghty, one of the finest jockeys ever produced by this country, for 30 days and banning a horse owned by JP McManus, unquestionably the country’s most powerful and influential owner, for 60 days qualifies as big guy stuff in any vernacular. So we’ve had the big splash: what everyone’s waiting on now are the ripples.
It is over four months since the first day of Fairyhouse’s Winter Festival yielded a handful of running and riding enquiries which seemed to suggest a new benchmark in terms of stewards taking action in relation to horses suspected of having fallen foul of the ‘non-trier’ rules. Action was taken in relation to two horses, including the McManus owned Shantou Ed, with penalties handed out to the trainers and jockeys, and both animals suspended from racing.
Two weeks afterwards, the penalties were lifted on appeal due to veterinary advice that wasn’t available to the racecourse stewards. A note of intent had nevertheless been put out there, one many hoped would set a tone for the winter. By any reasonable measure it was a false hope as any number of maiden hurdles and beginners chases in particular quickly returned to what many suspect is their underground function, which is to get horses handicapped.
This space was all set to point out how a Navan running and riding enquiry on Saturday into the performance of the maiden hurdle also-ran, Mash Potato, was a good example of the little-guy cliché, as the stewards “noted” the explanations of trainer Noel Kelly and jockey Steven Kelly who was encouraged to be seen to make more of an effort in future. And then just 24 hours later the Limerick stewards acted as they did in relation to Noble Emperor.
As to the obvious question about whether or not the penalties, which also included trainer Tony Martin’s €3,000 fine, were merited, one can only say that if the stewards hadn’t pulled them in to explain Noble Emperor’s performance then the question would have had to be asked as to why not.
Velocity Boy’s front-running ploy could hardly have been a surprise given he has a history of racing that way. But the field gave the winner a lot of slack with Cliff House appearing the first to meaningfully take up the chase, followed by Noble Emperor. Even coming to the second last, Geraghty’s body language was hardly animated, admittedly on a horse which has flattered to deceive in the past. But it was a performance which demanded questions to be asked.
That the steward’s panel asked them, and ignored an opportunity to duck a difficult decision when it was reported that Noble Emperor lost a shoe, is commendable. Significantly, they reported Geraghty as saying that the horse felt healthy at all times during the race. Weighing up the evidence they decided the ‘non-trier’ rules had been breached and acted accordingly, imposing penalties with consideration to both Geraghty’s and Martin’s records. In short they did the regulatory job entrusted to them, regardless of who was involved.
The short term ripples of this are obvious. The profile of those penalised, particularly Geraghty, means there is going to be intense interest in the possibility of appeals being lodged, and should they be, their eventual outcome. No sooner had the outcome of the Limerick enquiry been released than speculation about the nature of arguments that might be employed at any appeal was being floated around and not all of it mischievous.
Putting a figure of Geraghty’s stature out of action for a prolonged period of time on a ‘non-trier’ offence is a big deal in anyone’s language. It was little wonder the jockey described himself as “shocked” afterwards. But the real ripple-effect will be judged much more long-term rather than on a single incident.
The penalties in this case are the most noteworthy since that Winter Festival. Are we reasonably expected to believe that there haven’t been incidents in the last four months which didn’t require similar attention to the kind the Limerick stewards brought to bear on Noble Emperor?
This is another case with the potential to strike a tone for significantly longer than just one Sunday at Limerick. If this is the sort of benchmark for future running and riding enquiries, both in terms of rules breaches, and a preparedness to act even if it is some of the big fish doing the breaching, this Noble Emperor case could ultimately prove as important as it is already dramatic.
But we have been here before, with occasional ‘spectaculars’ disrupting long lulls of inertia which only fuels public scepticism about racing’s seriousness in relation to properly policing itself. No doubt, as the Curragh clock says, time will disclose all.
Racing’s habit of sliding around issues rather than confronting them is all over the BHA’s new interference guidelines with stricter penalties for jockeys who breach the interference rules.
Under the new set-up, Andrea Atzeni would get seven or eight days for his controversial St Leger winning ride on Simple Verse rather than the three he actually got at Doncaster. And that, we are led to believe, will be enough to dissuade Atzeni, or anyone else, from doing exactly the same in similar circumstances if the potential reward is judged worth it.
On the same day these new rules were outlined, there was also a BHA review of whip use which described how general breaches are declining but incidents were up in Grade/Group 1 races, those races which coincidentally are the ones jockeys most want to win, and which are the races most watched by the public.
It must take a strong stomach to present this stuff with a straight face.
