Douvan at Cork on Sunday© Photo Healy Racing
We are where we are: a phrase as banal as it is unarguable. But it pretty much sums up where Horse Racing Ireland is right now. Having slalomed its way around public guidelines over Brian Kavanagh’s reappointment as chief executive, become the focus of public criticism over its governance, got dragged before the Oireachtas to explain itself only to display braying unrepentant arrogance in doing so, and manoeuvring with startling expediency throughout, we now appear to be where we are - which is exactly where we were before.
Kavanagh has his third term. Having long since missed his cue to step down gracefully, Joe Keeling is still HRI chairman. And if documents secured under Freedom of Information indicate it was the former chairman Denis Brosnan who kicked the contractual can down the road he has long since left racing’s administration so can’t be expected to carry it now. Meanwhile the HRI board continues to appear as relevant as a eunuch in a brothel and the government is so outraged at having been given a run-around that they’ve announced increased funding for next year. So we are where we were.
What ultimately might occur with Kavangh in terms of a potential Contract of Indefinite Duration scenario continues to fascinate some, although he himself has indicated he will be gone at the end of five years: it’s the kind of detail which is fascinating to those inside the racing tent. And if we’ve learned anything it is that all of this is resolutely a private party: us proles among the tax-paying public might pony up but racing’s establishment believes public rules about public accountability don’t apply to them.
If the Turf Club is likely to move gingerly in terms of its proposed new alterations to the ‘non-trier’ rules then a relatively cool initial response from bodies representing trainers and jockeys provides some reassurance that they might be on to something. Put simply if the people being policed were cheerleading new measures it would hardly send out encouraging signs about their likely efficacy.
Apparently there will be a 90 day ban for blatant ‘stop’ jobs, a regulation unlikely to be employed too much since proving such an offence to legal standards is all but impossible, even if the official will to pursue it existed. Then there will be new clauses dealing with riders making an effort and horses running in dubious condition. But the really important one, as referenced here a week ago, is in relation to rides that could be filed under “misjudgement.”
That could allow stewards at the coalface at least a chance to make something stick. It’s a sort of half-way house which may allow a certain leeway in terms of going after someone, principally if that someone is prepared to play ball and take the rap on a relatively minor charge rather than deal with a potentially major one. Even so will even that ultimately come down to connections playing ball? And what happens when they start to stand on their honour in relation to the minor charge too?
The Douvan train continues full steam ahead after his sparkling return to action at Cork on Sunday. Punchestown’s John Durkan Chase may have been the Grade 1 but it was relegated to second-place in terms of public interest. Not for a long time has such anticipation revolved around a single horse as it did with Willie Mullins’s brilliant star in the Hilly Way Chase. And he didn’t disappoint.
There will inevitably be those querying what he beat but 1-6 odds indicate how that was always going to be the context. What’s so exciting with this horse is the style with which he wins and a sense that the potential for much more is still there. Douvan moved Willie Mullins to say last season: “He’s special so where do you go next year: the Champion Chase looks the obvious race but he stays as well and he settles; he could be a Gold Cup horse.”
It can be dirty pool sometimes to throw back quotes made in the heat of the moment but it’s that sort of statement which is at the heart of people’s expectations of this horse, and probably also at the heart of Mullins’s brief moment of exasperation on Sunday when he said: “I can’t see why people want to go out in trip.” Instead Douvan looks like being kept to two miles this season and he is already a heavy odds-on favourite for the Champion Chase.
But Mullins must know why many people want Douvan to go out in trip. The Gold Cup is the ultimate steeplechase prize. It mightn’t be the logical and professionally sensible prize when a potentially lucrative sail through the two mile ranks exists, especially for a trainer who has always believed in steering his horses towards the most winnable option. There is though the possibility, hinted at by both Mullins and Rich Ricci, that next season may be a different story.
It might sound ridiculous but that hint will already have some anticipating Douvan going down the Gold Cup road next season. That’s the hold steeplechasing’s ‘blue riband’ has on the public imagination: right now Douvan’s grip is pretty tight too. The combination of both is such that Douvan could carry all before him over two miles this winter and still leave a sense of ‘what if’ in his wake.
What’s intriguing is the idea that Mullins & Co could be thinking spectacularly long-term and using this campaign as a stepping stone. It’s the brave man’s route since problems with horses are always just a step away. But Mullins has been known to go down the brave man’s route before.
Finally, how many of you are aware of bookmakers charging an ‘inactive account fee’ such as the one outlined recently in relation to an online Ladbrokes client in Britain.
He’d had his betting restricted, and stopped using the account as a result, until discovering almost 1,300 quid had been taken from his balance. The firm reportedly took three monthly five per cent deductions under its terms and conditions in relation to accounts which are deemed inactive.
All online firms have policies on dormant accounts but they are effectively allowed write those policies themselves. In this case the client was apparently not even sent an email warning him such deductions were taking place. The money has been returned. However the incident hardly alters the perception that modern betting conglomerates basically treat punters as marks.
