Tuesday 17th October will go down in the annals of Irish racing as a momentous day. After more than 200 years of uncontested rule, the Turf Club appeared to have backed itself into a corner. Having rejected the Government's proposed merger and, in turn, stalled the cash injection for the industry, the time had come to face the music.
Approximately 2,500 of the racing industry's finest descended on the Curragh racecourse where the Turf Club was holding its quarterly general meeting. The well-organised and, on the whole, well-behaved group marched the 500 yards from the Stand House hotel to the winning post of the racetrack armed with a letter of protest calling for the Turf Club to respond positively to the Government's proposals. The group had hoped to deliver its message directly to senior steward Gerry Scanlan, but unfortunately (or perhaps fortunately for Mr. Scanlan) Brian Kavanagh, the chief executive of the Turf Club, accepted the letter. Mr. Kavanagh, who is one of the few to have enhanced his reputation during these troubled times, was subjected to boos and heckling from some sections of the crowd.
The group returned to the Stand House en masse and held a press conference to air their grievances. Although the letter stated that the Turf Club should 'take the honourable course of stepping aside' if it refused to join the rest of the industry in 'this new exciting enterprise,' Willie Mullins of the Irish Racehorse Trainers Association went further by saying that the representative organisations would request the Government to immediately introduce legislation to establish a new regulatory entity should the Turf Club fail to respond positively to this call. Strong words that convey quite clearly the level of feeling this issue has stirred up amongst the industry's professionals.
The protestors, a broad cross-section of the industry including leading trainers Dermot Weld and Aidan O'Brien and jockeys Michael Kinane and Charlie Swan (no sign of Industry Group chairperson Chryss O'Reilly), were not to know that the Turf Club was about to pull an ace from its sleeve.
Within hours of the march, the Turf Club announced that it had reached a compromise with Minister for Agriculture Joe Walsh via the intended introduction of an independent arbitrator. The Turf Club has agreed to be bound by the arbitrator's conclusions regarding the controversial issue of integrity services. Currently, the Turf Club's duties fall into two categories: registry and integrity. Responsibility for the former is to be administered by the new body, Horse Racing Ireland (H.R.I.), while the integrity services will remain independent under the control of the Turf Club.
The cash windfall moved a step closer when late on Thursday evening, after almost five hours of intensive negotiations between the Turf Club and the Government, a joint statement was issued and 'a basis for the resolution of the outstanding issues was agreed.' It read: 'Both sides consider that the conditions now exist for the establishment of the new structure which will enable the introduction of a new funding arrangement and the preparation of the necessary legislation.'
The exact extent of the Turf Club carve-up will not become public knowledge until a further statement is issued on Monday next.
How and where this money is spent is likely to open up another can of worms. Personally, I do not believe that increasing prize-money is necessarily the answer. The recently published owners' league table, detailing what percentage of owners' costs are recouped through prize-money, has Irish owners in 37th place. Last year, owners in Ireland only recovered 24% of their expenditure even though our prize-money is the fifth highest of the 44 countries surveyed. This finding would suggest that it is not a lack of prize-money that is causing the imbalance, that Irish owners must be incurring costs that do not pertain to their counterparts in other countries, and that even doubling the prize-money will not see owners reach parity. This is an issue that should be addressed.
Saturday's J.P. McManus sponsored card at Cork (switched from Tipperary for the second time in three years) produced some definite pointers to the jumps' season ahead. Limestone Lad showed his battling qualities when winning his second race over fences in a week. He doesn't look a natural over the larger obstacles, but is sure to enjoy a profitable season. Both Youlneverwalkalone and Moscow Flyer will improve considerably having filled the minor placings behind KnifeEdge in the featured John James McManus Hurdle. The Mucklemeg Bumper looked an above-average contest and will provide plenty of winners over the winter; most notably the Christy Roche trained winner Timber King.
Ishiguru, recently beaten a neck in a hot Newmarket Maiden, put up a classy display at Naas on Sunday. The Aidan O'Brien trained colt stormed home by 11 lengths, confirming his position at the top of the Ballydoyle pecking order. O'Brien is so confident of the colt's ability that he has already mapped out next season's campaign which will culminate in the July Cup.
It wasn't all joy for the Coolmore alliance, the Listed race on the same card providing a unique statistic when the quartet of runners carrying the Magnier family's colours filled the last four places home.
