CCTV 'a great asset' to combat doping in horse racing

There was a €10m overspend on the redevelopment of The Curragh racecourse in Co Kildare.

The head of the governing body for Irish horseracing has acknowledged that only having completed the installation of two CCTV systems at Irish racecourses in three years is “a very poor return”.

Brian Kavanagh, the chief executive of Horse Racing Ireland (HRI) for the past 20 years, said his board had approved funding last month to complete the installation of security systems at the country’s 23 other courses.

HRI had initially apportioned €9.6m to the project in its 2018 budget, only to divert those funds halfway through that year at the request of its own regulatory body, the Irish Horse Racing Board.

Jockey Kevin Brouder riding Viking Hoard before pulling him up after jumping six hurdles at Tramore racecourse on October 18, 2018. The horse had been doped with a tranquilliser to 100 times the legal limit. Picture: Healy Racing

Mr Kavanagh said the infamous case of the horse Viking Hoard, which was doped with a tranquilliser at Tramore in October 2018 to 100 times the legal limit, had been prosecuted without the need for CCTV, but he acknowledged a comprehensive CCTV system would be “a great asset” for combating doping.

Regarding a €10.7m overspend on the HRI’s redevelopment of The Curragh racecourse in Co Kildare, Mr Kavanagh said “a number of issues” had been to blame, including a €2.5m expense on a new stable yard, which he said had been “for the good of the venue”.

He acknowledged the main stand at the course tends to make a heightened “whistling sound” during periods of high winds, but said “a solution was in hand with the contractors”.

Regarding the €389,000 the HRI lost upon the collapse of its cash-in-transit contractor Senaca in 2019, Mr Kavanagh said 45% of the money lost had been collected in the four days prior to the company going into liquidation suddenly in July of that year.

With Fianna Fáil’s Paul McAuliffe speculating the alleged fraud perpetrated by Senaca is essentially “repeatable”, the HRS’s chief financial officer said it was “something that we have to keep an eye on”.

Mr Kavanagh, meanwhile, said that a “risk assessment” was under way with regard to the banning of gambling advertising at racing events.

Asked whether or not he feels that the industry might ever function without State funding of the industry, €67.2m in 2020, Mr Kavanagh said Ireland was “not unusual” in having such a system.

“It stimulates the economic activity which this industry generates," he said.