Bracelet beating Tapestry and Volume at the Curragh© Photo Healy Racing
Credit where it’s due – once those caulkins were spotted on Volume before the Irish Oaks, the system kicked into play and what had to be done was done. Luca Cumani could talk about being allowed use such shoes around the globe but the rule in Ireland is black and white. Lucky for the authorities though that the eagle-eye who spotted them on Volume in the first place piped-up beforehand: it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if it came to light afterwards - especially if Volume had won. Not that anyone who’d paid into the Curragh would have known much about it.
Those at the track on Saturday wound up doing what those who stayed at home did – watching the telly. Plenty at the Curragh though remained in the dark for much of the twenty minute delay, watching mute TV pictures of stewards peering into a box and chewing on a brief announcement over the PA about the Oaks runner having to be re-shod, but having precious little else to work with in terms of actual information. Clearly there was a sense of some officials flying by the seat of their pants with an unexpected problem but it surely wouldn’t have been a big deal to provide those who’d actually paid in with some relevant information about the nature of the issues surrounding one of the favourites.
Volume ran a fine race in the circumstances but considering she was only beaten a couple of necks by Bracelet and Tapestry, it is inevitable the Cumani team will have an ‘if only’ hanging over them. The removal of the protusions on the eve of the race was far from ideal. There was even a time limit imposed by the stewards. That can hardly have eased any sweating by a lot of people, although, again, it would have been news to most among the attendance. We are supposed to be in an information age. When those at home are better informed than those on the ground, it’s hardly an encouragement to go racing.
The Curragh has been having a rough trot recently, especially with Australia’s Derby solo-show. But there’s an undeniable element of being damned either way when it comes to classic line-ups at HQ. If Targhooda had lined up in the Oaks – and didn’t that reshuffle work out wonky for Shadwell – then criticism about a lop-sided race would have been inevitable. But once she was taken out, questions got asked about how the Epsom winner’s absence might affect the prestige of the Curragh race: a case, it seems, of damned if you do and don’t.
And thrown into the mix last week was the declaration by HRI chairman Joe Keeling that it will cost E5 million just to get the projected Curragh redevelopment to planning permission stage, an eye-watering sum before even a block is put down . And isn’t the agreed shareholding structure, with HRI, the Turf Club and benefactors, having a third each, a long-term headache just waiting to happen. One racecourse wag is already offering three-digit odds about building finishing by 2017. Overall, however, there can’t be many numbers at the Curragh that could be called cushy right now.
However there’s worrying, and then there’s the sort of worrying future that those who make a living from bookmaking at the nation’s racetracks have to contend with. It already seemed like such creatures were being wrangled for conservation purposes but if there’s a figure to take out of HRI’s half-yearly statistics, it is surely the E40.5 million that was bet in total on-course.
When you consider the total turnover on even the most mundane races every day of the week, betting with a bookie standing on a box is starting to look quaint, a curio from a bygone age that parents can bring their kids to gawp at in wonder at how primitive things used to be. One layer even confessed to this corner that it’s ridiculous going to the races to stare at a computer when he could just as easily do the same at home, in warmth and comfort, and be probably better informed into the bargain.
What’s also starting to look quaint is nostalgia for the days when the King George at Ascot was the ultimate midsummer clash of the generations, the ultimate test of a three year old champion’s credentials. Nathaniel in 2011 has been the sole three year old winner in the last ten years of what has morphed into what is commonly regarded as an older-horse test.
That’s what will make Taghrooda’s challenge so fascinating. There appears to be a view that the Irish Oaks has cast doubt over the value of the Epsom form but really Taghrooda won as she pleased there. She looks outstanding. Mind you, she will have to be to win a King George. Time Charter in 1983 was the last filly to win it. Pawneese in 1976 was the last three year old filly. Even a champ like Oh So Sharp got beaten in it. Is Taghrooda at such a level? You couldn’t rule it out.Credit where it’s due – once those caulkins were spotted on Volume before the Irish Oaks, the system kicked into play and what had to be done was done. Luca Cumani could talk about being allowed use such shoes around the globe but the rule in Ireland is black and white. Lucky for the authorities though that the eagle-eye who spotted them on Volume in the first place piped-up beforehand: it would have been interesting to see what would have happened if it came to light afterwards - especially if Volume had won. Not that anyone who’d paid into the Curragh would have known much about it.
