Latest Blogs from Vincent Finegan and "My Racing Story"

A Fool And His Money….

That title just about sums up my week following last weeks blog. I’ve been called a few names and thoroughly enjoyed the reaction and interaction on RacingFM following Forgotten Rules success at Champions Day at Ascot.

2.29PM

Thanks for the Feedback

On behalf of all the staff at irishracing.com I would like to thank everyone who took the time to complete our recent marketing survey. Almost 1,300 people completed the survey which was designed to aid our commercial team in their never ending pursuit of advertising revenue. It is this revenue which keeps irishracing.com a 100% Free resource and helps us to maintain the standards of service that you expect.

11.18AM

That Johnny Murtagh Wasn’t A Bad Jockey

The government flashed-the-cash in the budget, pledging E23 million extra to racing over the next three years, a move not surprisingly welcomed within the industry as a sign that maybe, after six years of funding cuts, the worst of the economic hump is over. What will be interesting to those of us without the industry is how the extra dough is divvied up: money talks, and where it goes says everything that needs to be said about priorities, and especially now.

9.18AM

Searching for Stardust….

There has been a lot of talk on RacingFM this week about the lack of stardust at the Ascot Champions Day this year. Journalist Donn McClean, jockeys Slippers Madden and Gary Carroll have all chipped in with me on the airwaves on the subject and with the weather, the Irish Champions Weekend getting the prime slot and runners sloping off to the paddocks it’s becoming a bug bear talking point.

5.05PM

Playing Game On Its Merits

Those bemoaning the supposedly premature retirement of Australia as a sign of flat racing’s arid soul might consider how it is in fact a game that is both sport and business: always has been, always will be. As John Giles famously insists, every game has to be taken “on its merits” so failure to get the head around that duality is an inevitable recipe for heartache. Sentiment might make us wish for Australia to have a four year old career but it is always easy to be sentimental with someone else’s money.

9.13AM

Viva La Revolucion!

Can you imagine a different golf rulebook for different countries? Or tennis laws that vary from tournament to tournament? Or a football foul in one place that isn’t in another? Of course you can’t, because that would be very stupid. It’s not like there’s a shortage of evidence to suggest a similar standardisation of racing rules around the world is desperately required, but anyone in need of more got it in spades during the Arc weekend.

8.59AM

Arc Still The Ultimate Prize

The Coolmore team have never left anyone in doubt of their passionate devotion to Epsom Derby success but there seems to be a comparative ambivalence from racing’s most powerful operation towards Europe’s other great mile and a half prize, the Prix de l’Arc de Triomphe. It’s a point which will again be starkly made by the absence of Australia from Sunday’s race, thirteen years after the dual-Derby winner’s sire Galileo skipped out on Longchamp.

9.18AM

Nothing To Hide

It is twenty five years since the rest of Europe woke up to the fact that Dermot Weld’s old jockey wasn’t too shabby. Once it was found out subsequent demand for Mick Kinane meant Weld eventually had to appoint a new jockey. Fifteen years later the trainer must shake his head in happy disbelief that he doesn’t have to cope with similar demand headaches in relation to Pat Smullen.

9.31AM

A Hell Of A Weekend

First things first: if Australia had held on to win the Irish Champion Stakes by a neck, instead of getting beaten a neck, nothing would have been said about Joseph O’Brien’s ride. Winners get forgiven everything. He might have even got praised for keeping things simple, not getting in the way of a great horse doing his stuff. And that would have been rubbish. Jumping on bandwagons is never very seemly but any kind of reasonable big-race analysis says this was a stinker.

9.02AM

Half-Full Or Half-Empty

Maybe it’s a glass half-full or half-empty deal but with the ammunition at his disposal for ‘Champions Weekend’ the ultimate verdict on Irish racing’s new E3.7 million shop-window initiative could come down to how a possible Aidan O’Brien beano this weekend is perceived: is it a good thing, or a bad thing, a neat unifying narrative thread through the two days, or just more evidence of overwhelming Coolmore dominance?

9.00AM

Starting A Habit

A lot will get found out during ‘Champions Weekend.’ The scene could be set for Australia to definitively justify those “best ever” claims with a spectacular performance. Long-term ambitions to turn the event into the first leg of an international Triple-Crown will get a crucial first examination. And it could also be a fascinating test of just how susceptible to advertising Ireland’s sporting public is when racing tries to lure it through the gates.

9.32AM

The First Million Is Never Clean

There has been angst aplenty over the BHA’s decision to allow Fergal Lynch ride again in Britain, much of it over whether or not the Irish jockey deserves a second chance after deliberately stopping a horse ten years ago. It’s true that Lynch betrayed appallingly, as true as it’s theoretically correct that jockeys should always try, and be seen to try, just as it’s true that confining races to such ethically pristine jockeys will result in an awful lot of loose horses: looking for perfection in racing involves looking forever.

8.59AM

Champs Weekend Needs Its Buzz HorseorseH

Since Australia is set to run at York this week it might be presumptuous to look three weeks further ahead and already label him the ‘Irish Champions Weekend’ lynchpin but no amount of PR flim-flam can disguise how so much of the industry’s new shop-window strategy could ultimately revolve around Aidan O’Brien’s colt. Actually, Australia and the weather: and since this is Ireland, pinning hopes on a horse is a far more reliable move than banking on the Met Office.

8.47AM

Endangered Species

The On-course bookmakers have struggled to adapt to a rapidly changing environment and all indications suggest their days are numbered.

9.39AM

Keeping Big Picture In Focus

The shouting at Galway came from the stands but the grumbling came from the stable-yard. And on the back of a new pre-race veterinary inspection policy it mightn’t be long before wrangling begins in the corridors of power. What might be worth keeping in mind though is how any such wrangling will appear to the great amorphous outside-world where animal welfare is a perpetually emotive subject.

9.37AM

The Galway Bubble

The Galway festival is Irish racing’s most distinctive feature. There’s nothing new in pointing that out but it bears repeating because there’s nothing like it elsewhere in the racing world. Galway is a self-perpetuating phenomenon that mostly exists in a self-contained bubble divorced from what happens out on the track which in terms of top sporting quality is mostly irrelevant. And the festival’s ‘USP’ is that it doesn’t matter.

8.37AM

Turning Up The Volume

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.

9.20AM

Some Information Really Isn’t ‘TMI’

Even ancients pining for a little pre-digital mystery concede that there can’t be Too-Much-Information when it comes to racing. Even though a lot of it can seem superfluous, and there for appearances sake a lot of the time, the option of simply ignoring it is always available. But the state of the going is always of primary interest to both punters and professionals. So why does so much continue to revolve around individual and inevitably subjective interpretations of a series of ground descriptions that can seem as archaic as they are imprecise.

8.37AM

Avoiding A Colditz Future

Out of all the figures that emerged from a controversial Irish Derby perhaps the most significant was the 86,600 viewing figure for RTE’s coverage of the meeting. That represented less than fifteen per cent of the available audience. Even allowing for the World Cup, Wimbledon and other sporting alternatives on at the same time, it’s a sobering reminder of racing’s place on the sporting spectrum.

9.01AM

How Cordiale Is The Entente?

All politics is local and although racing politics generally manages to maintain a big-picture consensus when it comes to big-issues such as doping, that ‘friends-together’ veneer still can’t disguise how so much still comes down to what’s on the local ground: a blunt reminder of that reality could be heading for the top echelons of European racing over the potentially divisive issue of the Irish Derby and it’s slipping international prestige.

9.18AM

There Will Be Flak

Irish Derbies mostly come in two sizes: either turning into a parade for a dominant champion which winds up getting criticism for being uncompetitive, or ultra-competitive renewals which get criticised for lacking an outstanding performer. And even on those rare occasions when both critical boxes get ticked, there’s flak for too small a field (Generous V Suave Dancer), a wonky clock (St Jovite V Dr Devious) or one outfit being too-dominant (Alamshar V Dalakhani.) That appears to be the Irish Derby’s thing: whatever happens, there will be flak.

9.16AM

Fighting The Good Fight

Fast-ground loving jump horses already looked to have their days numbered but after the Clonmel carnage that saw five horses killed at one meeting it could be sooner-rather-than-later about those opportunities disappearing completely. Dismissing such incidents in ‘one-of-those-things’ terms isn’t on. If it is a statistical fact that faster ground leads to more fatalities then the industry has to be seen to alter those statistics and the easiest way is to ensure the going never even gets to ‘good.’

9.04AM

Rewriting The Record Books

Did the fact Ryan Giggs won a lot more medals than George Best make him a better Manchester Utd player? Does the fact Roger Federer has won the most Grand-Slam titles automatically make him tennis’ greatest ever? Definitive answers are impossible but it’s still difficult to argue with stark statistical evidence and how the facts and figures point to unarguable evidence of Aidan O’Brien’s supreme training ability.

8.55AM

The Can-Can

It’s the little pictures that impact every day so while the big picture right now may be about classics and corruption sometimes racing loses out on simple things like a can of Coke: specifically the cost of it. In big picture terms this is clearly trivial stuff but since a core strategic ambition for racing is to increase attendance levels at tracks it can hardly be dismissed as irrelevant either.

10.26AM

Joining The Stupid Dots

Dimitri Yachvili’s famed rugby life has been notable for an obvious intelligence. The horse that carries the French international’s name has had a mostly mediocre career but is assured a footnote in racing history for the stupidity surrounding him. Without that stupidity it is doubtful the Yachvili case would have even seen the light of day, never mind become a landmark episode.

9.15AM

Having Your Cake and Eating It

As they say in exams, compare and contrast: on the eve of the Preakness Stakes the favourite, California Chrome, had a single blister in his throat described by his trainer as ‘no big deal’ but it was widely reported he coughed four times. Six weeks before the 2,000 Guineas, the then favourite, Australia, had a cough, reportedly for up to a fortnight, and there wasn’t a peep.

8.52AM

Slow-Slow-Quick-Quick-Slow

It took almost twenty five minutes from the time they passed the post in the Derrinstown Derby Trial to the announcement that the stewards had placed Ebanoran behind Fascinating Rock: how long would it have taken for that same decision to have been reached in France, or Australia, or the US, or Hong Kong? The PA announcer probably wouldn’t have had time to clear his throat.

10.41AM

More Pats Than Kicks

At this stage of his life Kieren Fallon probably knows only inches separate a pat on the back from a kick in the arse. It’s interesting to ponder how many of those queuing up to praise his winning 2,000 Guineas ride on Night Of Thunder would be pointing to the colt’s dramatic late drift as proof the former champion jockey is ‘gone’ had the verdict gone the other way. But because he won that drift becomes just more evidence of Fallon’s genius horsemanship.

11.14AM

Everything Leads Up To Jezki & The Fly

The phrase ‘Ireland’s Cheltenham’ will be used a lot this week to describe the Punchestown festival, and it’s rubbish really: Cheltenham is Ireland’s Cheltenham. It’s a peculiarity of Irish racing that it’s most important meeting of the year doesn’t actually take place here. But pointing that out doesn’t diminish Punchestown’s own status one iota.

8.58AM

A Guineas Command

Just a dozen days now until a 2,000 Guineas being billed as the best in a long time, an Australia V Kingman showdown, with Toormore slugging it out there too in a plucky third-wheel kind of way. Then there’s Kingston Hill and even the Spaniard Noozhoh Canaries as potential exotics: all of which means that perhaps the best option of all continues to be mostly ignored - War Command.

9.16AM

Oh! What A Lovely War

It’s not making many headlines but the increasingly entrenched positions taken by both the HRI and the Turf Club right now over Simon Coveney’s administrative ambitions are taking on a trench-warfare vibe, principally over money of course, but also as a consequence, the theory of independent regulation within Irish racing.

8.57AM

The 39 Steps To Precedent

You gotta hand it to the Aintree National when it comes to controversy: everything goes perfectly – and still the what’s-it hits the fan. This yarn even has good guys and bad guys, gallant brave and colourful jockeys sticking it to dull grey officialdom. The only problem comes from the precedent set if thirty nine riders are seen successfully managing to stick two-fingers up to the man.

2.35PM

Self-Inflicted National Injury

There’s irony in how years of effort to make the Grand National safer has resulted in racing’s great shop-window being potentially more lethal than ever before. Everyone knows that speed is the great danger in steeplechasing. Even the ropiest jumper will manage to clamber over an obstacle if given enough time. But Aintree’s great self-inflicted injury is that no such luxury will be available on Saturday.

5.40PM

Schmo Time Is Coming

As racing bull goes, pointing out that “no one forces anyone to bet” is right up there with “the horse doesn’t know what price it is.” Of course no one’s forced to bet. In the bleedin’-obvious stakes that’s a Group 1 piece of self-evident. And pointing it out as some sort of justification for the regulatory status-quo is a Group 1 piece of hogwash.

3.49PM