Douvan leads Alpha Des Obeaux over a hurdle at Punchestown© Photo Healy Racing
The difference between amateur and professional often has nothing to do with ability but rather the professional being able to do the job NOW and the signal of intent that sends out. There is a rather topical link here to the BHA's plans for a belated enquiry into Aidan Coleman's use of the whip in the Welsh National but also in broader terms about the need for professional stewarding in Ireland.
This is hardly a new topic but since it involves both ego and money it is always a hot one.
The financial aspect is obvious. Professional stewards means ponying up. Even mere competence costs, and excellence can cost a lot. Considering long-ingrained attitudes in this country towards spending on integrity the concept of well-intentioned and often very talented and able people doing the job for free is an attractive one for those in charge of balance-sheets: a bean-counters default setting is always to focus on the bottom-line.
The ego thing is less straight-forward. Those often very talented and able people sitting on stewards panels are usually possessed of sufficient ego to ensure they are unlikely to ever be overwhelmed by self-doubt. You rarely get to such positions without having proven yourself very capable. And not unnaturally such people aren't fond of having their competence questioned.
But racing is a billion Euro a year industry in Ireland. It is a flagship sport with the government pumping in substantial state money and planning to increase employment figures to almost twenty thousand jobs. Horses are one of the few things this country does brilliantly, recognised for same worldwide. And when racing chooses to take itself seriously it can take itself very seriously indeed - except it seems when it comes to stewarding.
No one can cast doubt on the good intentions of those accomplished men and women who volunteer for no reward around the country but would those same men and women entrust responsible roles in their own respective professional fields to well-meaning amateurs? And would they truly believe that doing so doesn't zing out signals about their businesses and positions, and the seriousness with which they are taken?
The answers are self-evident and yet an ultra-professional sport and industry persists with entrusting hugely important and high-profile racecourse policing roles to amateurs who can sometimes be quick to point out to stipendiary colleagues who's in charge. Throw on top of that a rulebook which relies on subjective interpretation to a worrying extent and there's little wonder the credibility of stewards is queried sometimes.
A small professional panel covering all tracks would be no magic wand, especially with the rules currently in place. But it is not unreasonable to assume it would bring more consistency and be completely au-fait with the requirements for specific situations. And if it didn't, hard questions could and should be asked without the automatic qualification that comes with well-meaning amateurs performing an onerous task for nothing.
The old argument about amateurs being agenda-free is old hat: a professional panel would hardly be pristine in that regard either. Ireland is too small for it to be otherwise. Ultimately the industry winds up policing itself since the ability and expertise required to do the job is unlikely to have been developed in some pristinely uncorrupted incubator.
But by definition the concept of professionalism comes with presumptions that tell the public plenty. And if racing is prepared to entrust stewarding to amateurs then it can't be surprised when the public reacts so disdainfully to excuses about there being not enough time to look into a high-profile incident such as Coleman's.
Ultimately professional stewarding has to happen. A Corinthian spirit may be admirable in many ways but in a world where amateur is a word increasingly synonymous with sloppy, it is a luxury racing cannot afford in the long-term. And ultimately that means coughing up cash to change things - NOW.
Sometimes however coughing up cash should be resolutely avoided and Paddy Power's 20-1 invitation to back Willie Mullins to win all three Grade 1 novice hurdles at Cheltenham looks one of them. No one can say it is impossible but the odds against the champion trainer pulling off all three are surely a lot longer than 20-1. As bets go the shrewd option is surely to 'lay' all day, and at a lot longer than 20's.
Tell Us More and Shaneshill are both prominent in the Neptune betting and Black Hercules is towards the top of the Albert Bartlett market while Douvan is favourite for the Supreme, the Neptune and most any other race you care to imagine after his Moscow Flyer solo at Punchestown. Throw in Alivisio Ville and there's no denying Mullins has an impressive hand.
But whether or not any Mullins accumulator survives even the first leg if Douvan goes in the Supreme depends on who you talk to and if you believe you can take the Moscow Flyer performance at face value.
If you do then Douvan is some kind of machine. He travelled and jumped brilliantly and effectively won in second-gear. It looked superb. But so much depends on the quality of opposition he beat and Alpha Des Obeaux looks to be a big raw stayer requiring three miles.
We have been here before with novices that look like the next Pegasus one day and disappoint the next. In this context Ruby Walsh's comments about really looking forward to next season with the horse look significant. At current odds a safety-first policy may be best. Even allowing for that though, in terms of potential the sky really does remain the limit for Douvan.
It's almost sacrilege to talk flat in January but a couple of things: California Chrome is surely a 'lock' for Horse of the Year in the USA this weekend and it seems the decision to go dirt at Meydan in order to get the Americans to play World Cup ball is looking even more questionable with the UAE stalwart Mike de Kock stating he is more or less abandoning the dirt track because of an obvious pace bias.
The hits just keep on coming!
